Northeast Asia Interconnection and Energy Security

The Northeast Asian countries has experienced the worlds highest economic growth rate in last two decades, and the resulting income rise, together with a growing population, has led to a surge in energy demand that is expected to continue to be the most dynamic economics of any country in the world, for at least in coming two decades. While high economic growth in the Northeast Asian countries will inevitably result in drastic increase of energy demand in the region. At the center of this expectation lies the prospect that China will rise as the most promising economy in the coming years. In the second, heavy dependency on coal and oil in the region points to its vulnerability to environmental issues. At Paris meeting it was clearly declared that international efforts for environmental preservation are likely to limit the use of fossil fuels in one way or another. This means that the countries in Northeast Asia could experience a serious problem in their efforts toward economic prosperity due to high environmental externality costs of energy, unless they convert to more environmentally-friendly renewable energy based energy supply systems. Growing concerns for environmental deterioration and climate change have caused the Northeast Asian countries to focus on increased use of renewable energy and on the possibility to improve energy supply through energy market integration and energy system interconnection between the countries in the Northeast Asian region. Northeast Asian countries are seeking to improve energy market efficiency and secure cost-effective energy supply through energy market integration and system interconnection. Advanced technologies of grid network and interconnection solutions of renewable energy, specially focusing on the high voltage DC transmission (HVDC) system and renewable energy technologies will be discussed in this paper. As part of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) country operations business plan for 2015, the Government of Mongolia sought ADB technical assistance (TA) to prepare a strategy for Northeast Asia power system interconnection (NAPSI) using Mongolias abundant solar and wind energy resources. The preliminary results of the study on possible options for interconnection of the power system in Northeast Asia and Road map for development of Asian Super grid by utilizing Mongolias vast renewable energy resources are described in this paper.