Global energy interconnection based optimal power systems planning — A global perspective 2016–2050

On the basis of an overview of world's energy situation and the outlook of the renewable generation and high voltage transmission techniques, a global energy interconnection (GEI) construction is proposed, which can achieve the global energy and electricity exchange. For the proposed GEI system, the power delivery potentials for main large-scale renewable energy power generation bases located in different continents are analyzed. In this paper, the concept of “interconnection risk” is introduced to describe the impact of changes in political risk and international situation on the transmission cost for the first time. With the objective of minimum power supply cost, a quantitative assessment model describing interconnection risk and an optimal power planning framework for GEI system are established. Finally, a sensitivity experiment is conducted to analyze the impact of kinds of uncertainties on the optimal power systems planning schemes.