A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering. School of Environment Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999

This study assesses the viability of selected supply-side power projects and demand-side programs for implementation under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change. It also examines the utility planning and the environmental implications of implementing the selected projects. Supply-side power projects considered as candidates for potential CDM projects are Integrated Gassification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plants and Dong Nai 8 (195 MW), Cua Dai (105 MW) and Ha Song Ba (200 MW) hydropower plants. Candidate demand-side programs considered as potential CDM projects are the option that considers replacing air conditioning units of 1300 W with the efficient ones with rated power of 1150 W and the another is to consider the replacement of electrical motors of capacity between 5-50 KW with 4% higher efficiency ones. The candidate CDM projects were assessed from incremental costs of C02 em1ss10n mitigation in the cases of the IGCC plants, selected hydropower plants and demand-side programs as potential CDM projects. Those are all found to be smaller than that of marginal abatement cost in some developed countries. Incremental costs of IGCC cases as potential CDM projects under traditional resource planning are found to be in between 16 to 52 US$, whereas it is in between 9 to 15 US$ ('98 prices) per ton of C02 emission in the case of hydropower. In integrated resource planning, incremental costs of the IGCC case as potential CDM project is 19 US$, whereas it is 13 US$ in case of Dong Nai 8 hydropower. The value of incremental costs are approximately 5 US$ ('98 prices) per ton of C02 emission in the case of two demand-side options. The level of potential C02 emission mitigation varied from 10 to 40 millions tons with potential CDM cases in the whole 18 years planning period (from 2003 to 2020). Under traditional resource planning, the level of potential C02 emission mitigation of IGCC cases as potential CDM projects are between 27 to 41 million tons, for hydropower cases the level ranges from 9 to 36 million tons. The level of potential C02 emission mitigation in integrated resource planning of the IGCC case as potential CDM projects is 30 million tons, for the case of hydropower Dong Nai 8, it is 14 million tons. When we consider two demand-side options, the level of emission reduces to 18 and 24 million tons.