(SEJONG = Newsis) The Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and six other power generation companies will establish additional facilities that will produce new and renewable energy equivalent to the gross generation of about 11 and half nuclear plants.

With its mid-to long-term energy business plan, which was announced on March 23, that aims to achieve the national goal of vitalizing the new and renewable energy industry, KEPCO is set to invest a total of KRW 42.5 trillion by 2020 to build new facilities that are capable of generating 72 percent (approximately 11.5 GW) of the nation’s total new and renewable energy volume.

KEPCO will increase the share of Korea’s new and renewable energy generation (approximately 0.8 GW) from the current 19.5 percent to 61.2 percent by 2020.

A total of KRW 10 trillion of cumulative net profits from the previous new and renewable energy-related business projects and KRW 32.5 trillion of project financing will cover the project costs. The company anticipates that the project will generate more than 267,000 employment opportunities.

“Korea’s new and renewable energy generation reached only 64.7 percent of the government’s target in 2012, so we need to concentrate our efforts on making it better,” said a KEPCO official. “Under the new plan, KEPCO will also focus on resolving the nation’s problem of limited new and renewable energy sources such as waste materials.”

In 2012, waste materials and water power accounted for 60.2 percent and 19.81 percent of the new and renewable energy source, while solar power (5.66 percent), wind power (4.68 percent) and fuel cells (2 percent) represented a small share.

For this reason, KEPCO decided to designate and proceed with offshore wind power, geothermal power and tidal current power development projects as government-funded projects, which have excellent growth potential but require massive capital investment.

The company will invest KRW 13 trillion to build a 2.5 GW offshore wind power plant in the southwestern sea. It also plans to invest KRW 5 trillion and KRW 1 trillion to develop an offshore wind power facility and a 0.8 GW new and renewable energy storage system (ESS) on the country’s south coast.

KEPCO also plans to carry out a project to increase the connection capacity of substations.

Its plan is to double the current new and renewable energy connection capacity of 40 MW in the second half of the year to eliminate obstacles in the development of new and renewable energy in southern provinces where additional development was halted due to saturation of connection capacity

Under the plan, the average connection capacity of each substation will be doubled from 40 MWnA to 80 MW, and the maximum capacity of each substation is expected to be increased from 27 GW to 54 GW.

In addition, in preparation for an aging society, KEPCO will develop the “new and renewable model,” a benefit-sharing business model for the distribution of profits derived from idle land and inactive assets to local residents.

The company will also pursue overseas expansion with other local companies, aiming to increase its overseas revenues to KRW 2.8 trillion by 2020.

“The new and renewable energy industry is considered the future growth engine of Korea, and this is why a public utility company like KEPCO should take the leading role in developing the industry,” said Cho Hwan-eik, President and Chief Executive Officer of KEPCO. “To successfully carry out the project, we need to address tough challenges such as our debt-cutting plan and establish a close and cooperative relationship with the government.”

lst012@newsis.com

Source Text

Source: Newsis (Mar. 23, 2014)

** This article was translated from the Korean.