characteristics are obtained from the official website of Bangladesh’s national power utility, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB, 2013), and the 2010 Power Sector Master Plan prepared by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and Tokyo Electric Power Company for the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR, 2011). For Bhutan, physical characteristics of power plants are from the National Statistical Yearbook of Bhutan (NSB (2013) and Annual Reports of Druk Green Power Company Limited, Bhutan’s national power company (DGPCL, 2013).

For Pakistan, physical characteristics of power plants are from an existing Power Sector Master Plan prepared by the SNC-Lavalin International Inc. in association with National Engineering Services Pakistan Limited for the National Transmission and Despatch Company Limited, Pakistan (NTDCL, 2011). The data are supplemented with information from an integrated energy plan 2009-2022 prepared by an energy expert group for the Economic Advisory Council, Ministry of Finance (EAC, 2009). Information on candidate hydropower projects are from a survey report prepared by Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (PWAPDA, 2011). Data for Sri Lanka are from the Central Electricity Boards’ Long Term Generation Expansion Planning 2013-2032 prepared by for Government of Sri Lanka (CEB 2012). We tried to use the data from the existing electricity master plan, where available, to be consistent with countries national electricity expansion plan in the baseline. However, we did not force all aspects of the baseline in the master plan to apply in our study, as the underlying assumptions in the master plan might be different from ours.

In India, the list of all existing plants and their installed capacities, year of commissioning and fuel type were taken from various documents (CEA 2012a, 2012b, 2012c and 2012d) published by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), a statutory organization under the Central Government that advises on matters relating to national electricity policy and plans. Supplemental information is taken from Energy Statistics published by India’s Central Statistics Office (e.g., CSO, 2012).

In Nepal, information related to existing and planned plants is from annual reports of Nepal Electricity Authority, (e.g., NEA, 2013). Information related to candidate hydro power projects is critical for Nepal, as it is the main supplier of hydropower under the regional electricity trading scenario. Individual plant level information was obtained from various sources (MOE, 2010; detailed feasibility and pre-feasibility study reports of various hydropower projects). The aggregate capacity of these plants exceeds 31,000 MW. Another 2,000 MW, including large and small hydropower projects is under construction. Thus, existing, under construction and candidate power plants for which information is available at individual plant level add up to about 33,000 MW, 76% of the total potential identified as economically feasible in the country. We model the rest of the potential hydro capacity (run of the river and storage) as aggregated power plants with characteristics similar to the most expensive individually identified plants.

Since no information is available on the retirement of power plants, we assume no power plant already in operation will retire during the study period. If an existing power plant is too old to operate throughout the study horizon, it will be renovated. This is an optimistic assumption, but no alternative to this assumption is available in the absence of committed retirement dates for existing power plants.

Technology specific standard data are used for some aspects of candidate power plants for new capacity investment. For example, construction times of 4 years for coal, 3 years for CCGT, 7