Korea intensifies power supply measures to prevent potential blackout

[Photo by MK DB]

The South Korean government is advancing preparations for potential blackouts as climate change has led to longer and hotter summers.

Maeil Business Newspaper has learned on Wednesday that the government has been advancing the power supply countermeasure period to prepare for the summer heat wave every year.

Since the massive blackout on September 15, 2011, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), and the Korea Power Exchange have implemented power supply countermeasures to prevent blackouts during heatwaves every year.

In 2019, the government started the power supply countermeasure period on July 8 to prepare for heatwaves. In 2022, the date was moved up to July 4, and in 2023 it was moved up to June 26.

This year, it started even earlier, on June 24. Compared to 2019, energy officials began emergency response efforts nearly two weeks earlier.

“As the summer heat wave begins in June, the start of the power supply countermeasure period has continuously been moved forward,” said a KEPCO official.

Peak summer power demand is also on the rise, adding to the concerns of energy authorities.

In 2020, peak summer power demand was 89.1 gigawatts (GW), but last year it jumped to 93.6GW. This increase of 4.5GW is equivalent to the capacity of four nuclear power plants.

This summer, peak demand is expected to reach between 92.3GW and 97.2GW during the second week of August.

“The power authorities have secured a supply capacity of up to 104.2GW for the summer by operating a total of 21 nuclear power plants,” said a ministry official.