Blackout feared

A nuclear plant in Younggwang, South Jeolla Province

Concerns are rising that Korea will face serious power shortages this winter following the unexpected stoppage of two nuclear reactors in Younggwang, South Jeolla Province due to faulty parts.

The demand for electricity surges when temperatures fall. Yet it’s believed that the two reactors ㅡ each capable of generating one million megawatts to cover 5 percent of the national power supply ㅡ will stay offline until early January during which time the government will replace more than 5,000 components that were falsely certified.

Increasing anxiety is the fact that several reactors are scheduled to go offline in rotation in the coming months for scheduled maintenance. In addition, it is possible more reactors could stop operations due to mechanical problems.

“We are in a super-emergency situation,” said an economy ministry official familiar with the case. “We don’t rule out the possibility that a major blackout could hit the country this winter.”

The official said the two reactors’ suspension was so abrupt that the government has yet to come out with a contingency plan to guarantee stable power supply during the winter season.

Korea is capable of generating electricity up to 82 million megawatts when all its thermal and nuclear power plants are operational. According to government statistics peak demand last winter was reportedly 80 million megawatts. Simply put, the absence of the two reactors has raised the possibility of a major blackout.

At present, seven out of 23 nuclear reactors remain inoperative due to regular safety checks or mechanical malfunctions, bringing down the country’s generation capacity to 68.5 million megawatts. Three of them, currently under safety checks are expected to resume operations by the end of the month, while it’s still uncertain when the other four will be back in action. Experts said it’s hard to expect electricity imports from Japan or China since the two nations are also wrestling with chronic power shortages.

Announcing the reactors’ suspension on Monday, Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-soo warned of “unprecedented” power shortages during the coming winter. The minister responsible for energy policies pledged the government will do everything it can to prevent the recurrence of a major power outage that hit the county in September last year causing huge damages to factories and other commercial facilities.

The urgency of the situation was confirmed at 4:12 p.m. Tuesday when electric power reserves dropped below 500 million kilowatts, forcing the economy ministry to issue the lowest of its five-level power shortage warning, according to the monopolistic state-run power supplier KEPCO. The supply-demand gap narrowed to 4.57 million megawatts, it said. The ministry has brainstormed with relevant agencies to develop measures to widen the gap.

The government is exploring various ways to secure additional electricity, one of which is borrowing four 150,000-kilowatt power generating vessels from Turkey.
“Turkey has rich experience in deploying these vessels to power-starved nations,” an official said. “The use of such vessels are temporarily helpful in easing a power shortage.”

The ministry is also considering mandating big buildings to use their emergency generators during peak hours. Nearly 60,000 buildings own emergency generators and their combined generation capacity is estimated at 20 million megawatts, it said. The government will soon launch a nationwide energy-saving campaign. <The Korea Times/Park Si-soo>