My sweetie. When mom was at your age, there was no electricity at night. Whenever I went to the toilet, I always went with grandmother because I was scared.
This story shows the life style of Korea without electricity about 40 years ago. Let’s look back on our daily lives. It is hard to imagine one day or even one hour without electricity. Without it, we couldn’t use the computer, air conditioner and heater and most importantly, our smart phones.
Korea’s current electricity supply situation
When looking closely at Korea’s current electricity supply situation, we find that it is not promising. From May to mid-June in 2012, reserved electric power was only average 3,440,000KW (kilowatt) per an hour. We could luckily have this amount of electric power due to demand-side management. If we weren’t, there would be only 380,000KW. Reserved electric power has decreased by more than 4 million KW compared to last year’s May and June. From late June to August, electric power still fell short by 4 million KW. As the temperature increases by only one degree, electric power demand increases up to 1,500,000KW. Continuous sweltering weather will end up draining all of the reserved electric power. Moreover, since many power plants begin preventive maintenance during September and November, there will not be as much reserved electric power as there was for the summer. This is because this year’s power plants preventive maintenance schedule was moved from the first half to the second half of the year. However, electricity supplement will be eased when large power plants are completed in 2014.
The reasons why supply of electric power is lacking
There are three reasons why supply of electric power is lacking. The first reason is the delay of building power plants. They are behind the schedule due to the civil complaint of local government and intensified by the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) phenomenon. To make things worse, Bu-gok power plant and Song-do power plant, scheduled to be built next year, are also postponed or delayed. Thus, 3,650,000KW of electricity cannot be provided as planned. The second reason is cheap electric rates and the electric-guzzling industry structure. Korea has relatively cheap electric charge and high rate of electric consumption. Industry fields such as shipbuilding yards require a lot of electricity. The last reason is prolonged preventive maintenance period and abnormal climate. As nuclear power plants have threatened human safety, preventive maintenance takes longer. In addition, power plants are less able to provide electric power since preventive maintenance is taking place during the seasons like spring and fall. This is because abnormal climate made these seasons hot or cold, so the electric demand is constantly increasing.
Solutions
Construction of Seoul complex thermoelectric power plant 1, 2 and Yang-ju complex thermoelectric power plant 1, that total can provide 4,500,000KW and is supposed to be completed this year, was delayed or canceled due to opposition force of local government and residents. As a solution, a new power plant that can be completed in a short period will be built. Not only that, the shutting down of old power plants will be delayed. In order to resolve problems with cheap electric charge and electric-guzzling industry structure, electric charge should be increased. Current KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) holds unreasonable system which purchases electricity from electric power plants with deficit and provides it to the public cheaply. KEPCO has supported our country’s industrial development by providing electric power at a low price. Now, it is our turn to pay prime cost for them. Also, if electric charge is increased, electric demand in industrial field would be decreased. The reason why preventive maintenance takes longer is that government postponed preventive maintenance of 9 thermoelectric power plants last May, proposing another solution for this summer’s need. Using several emergency self-generators among 60,000 in major buildings will be a great help to resolve the problem.
We should be aware that every second of our lives need electricity and keep in mind not to repeat last year’s black-out.
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