POWER November 2013 - 34

POWER POLICY
proposed emission trading scheme has been
expressed, " said Changmin Yoo, the director
of PwC South Korea.
A Delicate Power Balance
Keep in mind that South Korea's energy
consumption has grown six-fold since the
1980s (and five times faster than other OECD
countries) on the back of rapid economic
growth propelled by its heavy and chemical
industries. The country is today the world's
9th-largest energy-consuming nation. Total
primary energy consumption surged to 275.7
million tons of oil equivalent (TOE) in 2011
as energy consumption per capita also increased,
from 1.1 TOE in 1980 to 5.1 TOE
in 2011, according to the Korea Energy Management
Corp. KEPCO reported in 2012 that
about 14% of net electricity generated was
consumed by residential use, 31% was for
commercial and public use, while about 55%
was for industrial use.
South Korea's current power portfolio is
divided mostly between thermal generation
and nuclear power. In 2012, total electricity
consumption soared to 466.59 TWh while
the total produced from 81.8 GW of installed
capacity was 509.58 TWh (Figure 2).
Thermal Generation. Coal power has
to date played a particularly marked role, its
share in the country's electricity mix rising
dramatically from 17% in 1990 to 40% in
2010. Gas-fired generation, too, soared during
that period, from 9% to 19%. Though
the country's " green growth " future strategy
favors nuclear power most of all, coal will
continue to play a major role, presumably to
boost energy security.
The bulk of South Korea's thermal generation
is produced at cities such as Dangjin,
where a coal-fired power plant has been in
3. Burnished coal credentials. KEPCO's coal-fired Dangjin power plant about 70
kilometers southwest of Seoul has four 600-MW units (Units 1-4) and four 500-MW ultrasupercritical
units (Units 5-8). Work is under way at the plant to complete two 1-GW units (Units
9 and 10) featuring ultrasupercritical technology by the end of December 2015 and June 2016.
Courtesy: KEPCO
operation since 2000 (Figure 3). Other generation
in or near urban centers includes the
$2.5 billion 1,600-MW Yonghungdo plant
near the city of Inchon and the Hadong plant,
which has eight 500-MW units.
Meanwhile, several innovative plants
are under construction, including KOSPO's
$3 billion Samcheok Green Power Project.
When online in 2014, that project will employ
low-grade coal and supercritical circulating
fluidized bed boilers. Another much-watched
project is an integrated gasification combined
cycle plant being developed by KEPCO subsidiary
KOWEPO, which will use GE's giant
2. Where coal is king. In 2012, South Korea's total installed capacity was 81.8 GW, and it
produced 509.58 TWh (not counting transmission losses) while it consumed 466.59 TWh. Source:
Korea Electric Power Corp.
Thermal
Nuclear
Hydro
Other renewables
Power plant capacity (GW)
1.86, 2%
0.48, 1%
6.45, 8%
Wind
Electricity production (TWh)
0.92, 0%
7.7, 2%
7.65, 2%
7F syngas turbine for the 300-MW plant in
Seoul that is slated to be completed in 2015.
Development of future coal plants will be
opened to independent power producers (IPPs),
and a number of players are vying for that opportunity,
including four Korean conglomerates:
Tong Yang, Dongbu, Samsung, and SK.
South Korea is also expected to begin construction
of LNG power plants with a combined
output of 5 GW starting in June 2015,
up from the 887 MW of LNG capacity in December
2012 and a combined cycle gas-fired
power plant capacity of 19.7 GW (or about
24% of the nation's total capacity). According
to giant South Korean construction firm Doosan-which
is the only player in the country
with the technological capacity to produce
gas and steam turbines-IPPs could secure
thermal power plant projects with a combined
output of about 11 GW (or nearly 74% of the
nation's thermal output in 2020).
Nuclear. Historically, nuclear power has
150.33, 29%
20.71, 25%
52.31, 64%
342.98, 67%
been essential for reducing South Korea's
vulnerability to global fuel shortages. Since
the 1970s, the country has carried out an
ambitious nuclear power program in parallel
with its industrialization policy, first building
power plants mostly through turnkey
contracts (its first plant, Kori 1, was built by
Westinghouse in 1978), and then developing
a domestic sector to undertake construction,
management, design, and equipment supply.
Touting " green growth " -a " new banner
for an old strategy, " notes U.S.-based think
tank the Council on Foreign Relations-
South Korea today has 21.6 GW of nuclear
34
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