Multilateral power grid interconnection for complementary utilization of energy in Northeast Asia

Confronting environmental problems and unbalanced geographical distribution of energy resources and load centers, grid interconnection has been regarded as a promising approach to achieve complementary and efficient utilization of diverse energy resources. This paper employs linear programming techniques to investigate the environmental and economic benefits of multilateral power grid interconnection in Northeast Asia. Considering temporal and geographical characteristics of load curves and renewable energy outputs in different regions, the proposed multilateral power grid interconnection model minimizes single-year overall system costs under energy resource and system operation constraints. The model not only optimizes generation and grid extensions, but also determines generation schedule and cross-border power exchange flows. Four scenarios are setup for the year 2030 to investigate the influence of interconnection operation modes. Simulation results prove the benefits of grid interconnection on carbon emission reduction and cost saving. Besides, hourly variant operation mode demonstrates the most satisfying performance.