À̹ÌÁö È®´ë A view of a thermal power plant in Taean, South Chungcheong Province. [Photo provided by Korea Western Power Co.]
South Korea keeping in pace with its timetable to reduce fossil fuel and go green cut down on coal in the first half of this year, but slightly increased power sourcing from nuclear fuel amid snowballing losses of state utility firm under new energy policy.
According to data released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Korea¡¯s reliance on coal for energy supply has been reduced from 41.7 percent in the first half of last year to 37.7 percent in the same period this year. Its reliance on nuclear power – another primary energy source in Korea along with coal –increased from 21.5 percent to 28.8 percent during the same period.
The increased power from nuclear generators reduced Korea¡¯s reliance on liquefied natural gas (LNG), an alternative energy source, from 28.9 percent to 25.3 percent. The figure for renewable sources gained from 6.1 percent to 6.7 percent.
Korea vowed to realign energy sourcing with the goal of pushing up renewable share to 35 percent by 2040 and phase out of fossil and nuclear fuel. The move has drastically hurt the bottom line of state utility firm as it had to import more expensive natural gas instead of using cheap nuclear fuel at home and invest more on renewable sourcing.
An unnamed official from the industry ministry said that it was able to reduce its reliance on coal as primary energy consumption this year from last year on efforts such as shutting down aging coal-fired power plants to reduce fine dust, halting operations of aging plants during spring season, and placing a cap on coal-power generation upon high concentration of air pollution.
In January, the Korean government shut down Yeongdong No. 2 coal-fired power plant and halted operations of four old coal-fired power plants over the March-June period. It also carried out preventive maintenance on 48 of total 60 coal power plants from March to May.
Nuclear power operation increased against a year-ago because there generators were idled more for maintenance and repair.
As part of efforts to move toward environmentally-friendly resources and cut back dependency on conventional energy sources, the ministry said that it will improve its overall demand resource (DR) policy that compensates companies in prior contract with Korea Power Exchange that reduce power usage during peak hours. The policy is aimed at securing optimum energy reserves by having factories and buildings reduce usage when demand goes up.
Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has seen mounting losses over recent years due to increased spending on policy costs such as to preserve renewable portfolio standards (RPS) obligation and power costs to cope with the government¡¯s nuclear-phase out policy.
Last year, KEPCO posted an operating loss of 208 billion won ($171.8 million), slipping into the red for the first time in six years. Its losses ballooned to 928.5 billion won in the first six months of this year.
By Lim Sung-hyun and Lee Eun-joo
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]