The power system interconnection between Northeast Asian countries has been discussed since 2000 but has not been realized to date due to various obstacles. This paper specifies the expected future energy policy, long-term energy supply plan, and necessity of power interconnection from the Korean viewpoint, including the climate change agreement. There are very many interconnection scenarios presented by various institutes in NEA countries now. These studies contain the overall preliminary feasibility results but do not consider the environmental effects, energy security, and market reforms. Do these existing studies show how we could interconnect specific countries? This paper discusses the trading potentials for green energy utilization between countries and some obstacles to be removed to promote the energy interconnection projects from technical, economic, marketable, and energy security standpoints. Especially, energy security in terms of politics, as well as vulnerability characteristics of renewable energy, could cause the interconnected system blackouts. These could be a serious obstacle to realization and continuous stable operation of these interconnection projects. Finally, this paper will specify the future directions and possible scenarios for power system interconnection by integrating these issues comprehensively from Korea's perspective.
Renewables Expansion in Northeast Asian Power Grid
