Opportunities and Challenges for the Greater Mekong Subregion by Charles Samuel Johnston Xin Chen

Author:Charles Samuel Johnston, Xin Chen [Charles Samuel Johnston, Xin Chen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781032175195
Google: CIuUzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-09-30T03:50:13+00:00

The Mekong Power Grid

The Mekong Power Grid is one of the major initiatives undertaken by the GMS programme. The objective of the Grid is to promote a commercial energy system that supplies electricity to the entire Mekong River Basin. The network involves installing transmission lines across the region, constructing 12 hydropower projects in Thailand and Vietnam, and enabling trade of electricity among China’s Yunnan Province, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Cambodia.68

Hydropower development across the Subregion is by and large associated with the evolving Mekong Power Grid. In other words, the Grid has helped build a platform for regional power trade and for private companies to join the World Bank, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and ASEAN in investing in the Subregion’s extended power sector. When completed, the transmission lines of the Grid are designated, for example, to link Thailand with the Jinghong and Nuozhadu Dams in China, the Salween River Dams in Myanmar, and the Nam Theun 2 Dam in Laos. Cambodia may more cost-effectively import hydroelectricity from Thailand and Vietnam. Meanwhile, Myanmar may attract more funding and technical assistance for its planned dams from countries and institutions within the Subregion.69

Table 6.6 shows the already established hydropower plants and cross-border transmission connections across the GMS. The data also epitomise the consolidation of the integrated energy market in the Subregion and the aspiration of the GMS countries for better inclusion and fully-fledged participation in transnational electricity trading. There is indeed a myriad of commercial dealings between national power grids that have been going on for decades in the Mekong region. According to the ADB’s records,70 Thailand has been importing hydropower from Laos since 1971. On its side, Laos has also been importing electricity from Thailand since the late 1990s and from China’s Yunnan Province since 2009. Vietnam has meanwhile been importing electricity from Yunnan since 2004, the Chinese province of which has itself been importing hydropower from Myanmar since 2008. Similarly, Cambodia has been importing electricity from Vietnam since 2008, from Thailand since 2009, and from Laos since 2010.

Table 6.6 Exiting regional power interconnections between the GMS countries (220 Kv and above)

Positions of transmission plants in the GMS countries Voltage

China (Yunnan): Xinquao to Vietnam: Lao Cai 220 kV

China (Yunnan): Malutang to Vietnam: Ha Giang 220 kV

Myanmar: Shewli I HPP to China (Yunnan): Dehong 220 kV

Vietnam: Chau Doc to Cambodia: Takeo 220 kV

Laos: Nam Theun 2 HPP to Thailand: Roi Et 2 500 kV

Laos: Nam Theun 2 HPP to Thailand: Ou done 3 500 kV

Laos: Houayho HPP to Thailand: Ubon 2 230 kV

Laos: Theun Hinboun HPP to Thailand: Sakhonnakhon 230 kV

Laos: Sekaman 3 to Vietnam: Thanh My 220 kV

Laos: Moung Kua to Vietnam: Dian Bian 220 kV

Laos: Ban Hat to Cambodia: Chiang Teng 220 KVdouble circuit

Source: The authors’ adaptation from data presented in ADB (2016/June: 9).72

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