3Existing study show that 80% exploitation of water resource in Laos would induce power trade between the countries and would become the net energy exporter, earn significant export revenue, and improve the increase in revenue of energy export per increase in total energy system cost from the maximum exploitation of hydropower resource. The integrated energy system cost is found to decrease marginally but it would mitigate the CO2 emission by 2% when compared with the base case. Thailand is expected to gain benefit from the increased level of power imported from Laos in terms of the lower energy system cost, better environmental quality and, greater diversification of energy sources.
The result further shows that the total CO2 emission of hydropower exploitation in Laos would decrease and CH4, NOx and SO2 emissions in Thailand would also decline corresponding to the expansion of power trade between these two countries.
The finding indicates that cross-border power trade between the two countries could contribute positive effects in terms of CO2 and local pollutant emissions to Thailand, whereas Laos would not have the significant impacts.