Design of Renewable Sources GIS for ASEAN Countries

Introduction

As electricity demands are increasing day by day causing unbalance in the present conventional grid system, people try to change from conventional grid towards smart grid. The smart grid can help us to reach the goal of clean air and energy independence by integrating renewable energy sources (RES) into the grid system. For the development of renewable energy in the country, it is necessary to have up-to-date information of the available RES such as meteorological data of incidence of solar radiation, water flow rate of rivers, wind speed and direction, temperature, tidal range, etc in the given area, the electricity demands of various regions of the country, infrastructure elements necessary for the construction of power plants based on RES. Power plants based on RES depend on the various geographical and environmental factors of the locations of RES power stations. By knowing these factors of locations, it can be easier to make right decision to install the power plant. To integrate RES into the grid system, the first thing to do is determine where RES power plants should be placed. To determine the location of new prospective power plants based on RES is provided by geographic information system (GIS), the development of which in recent years has become a world interest.

At present, there is a positive experience of using GIS and GIS technologies in the field of renewable energy in the world (Zay Yar Lin & Tyagunov M. G., 2016; Zay Yar Lin & Tyagunov M.G., 2015). Energy companies widely use GIS in project development. The data from GIS for RES should be reliable and the reliable data can be obtained from a certain region. So in this work a prototype of regional GIS for RES is created for Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

In this work determining optimal placements of power generation based on RES using GIS for RES is divided into the four main stages (Zay Yar Lin & Tyagunov M. G.,2016). They are:

• 1.

  Estimating the potential of renewable energy in a given area.

• 2.

  Examining the factors affecting the placement of renewable energy facilities in a given area.

• 3.

  Creating the GIS for RES.

• 4.

  Selecting the optimal hybrid power systems to cover electrical demand of the given area using GIS for RES.

GIS can save time and money when determining where and how RES should be exploited and used. GIS enables identification of areas with high potential of RES, and regions with restrictions on their exploitation, such as environmentally or culturally sensitive areas. GIS also supports estimation of the output of RES in areas available for exploitation, as well as economic, social and environmental benefits, and examination of whether or not economic development goals, social equity and environmental protection have been achieved. The degree to which, for example, a solar park is profitable as an exploit for investors can be expressed as the ratio between gross income and project price, together with the payback period. But exploitation and use of RES also bring economic benefits at regional level, along with social benefits and improvement to the environment.

The development of the use of Web-GIS in Myanmar is at the very first stage. In Myanmar, GIS is used mainly in the transport sector and there is no GIS in the field of renewable energy in Myanmar.

1. The Development Of The Energy Sector Of Res In The Republic Of The Union Of Myanmar

In Myanmar, there is a shortage of electricity in all sectors, including in the municipal sector (Dr. Hla Myo Aung, 2015; Michael Emmerton et al., 2015). At present, the national grid system of Myanmar does not cover the whole territory of the country. Many rural residents live with little or no electricity. Most of autonomous consumers in rural area mainly use diesel or gasoline generators. Currently, for rural consumers of Myanmar, the use of RES is one of the best solutions for replacing the use of fossil fuels.