Fears of blackout spreading fast

The Korea Electric Power Corp., the state-run distributor of electricity, issued a level 2 warning of a power shortage, Wednesday, because of the growing consumption of electricity due to the hot weather. The level two warning was the first this year. / Yonhap

By Kim Tae-jong

The government Wednesday issued a level 2 warning of a possible electricity shortage for the first time this year, following the issuing of a level 1 warning on the previous two days. There are five levels of warnings but the series of earlier-than-usual issuances have raised concerns over a power blackout during summer.

The Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), the state-run distributor of electricity, issued the 2 warning after the country's power reserves temporarily dipped below 3.5 million kilowatts at 11:20 a.m.

Worries have arisen as the warning was given in early June, although the summer peak season for electricity demand hasn’t even started yet.

The main reason for the early issuances is that two nuclear reactors were taken offline last week because faulty components were found to have been used in them.

The sudden suspension of the Singori Reactor 2 in Busan and Sinwolsong Reactor 1 in North Gyeongsang Province has increased the number out of action to 10, meaning almost half of existing reactors are not generating electricity.

It will take at least four months for the two reactors to resume operation after safety checkups and approval from the authorities.

Currently, the nation has 23 reactors, but four of them are undergoing maintenance and another six reactors are out of operation due to malfunctions and safety concerns due to substandard components.

The additional suspension has increased the possibility of a power shortage as nuclear power accounts for 30 percent of the country’s total electricity supply.

Generating capacity is normally 83.75 million kilowatts but the current capacity stands at 67 million kilowatts, largely due to the reactors out of action.

A major problem is that maximum demand is expected to reach 78.7 million kilowatts this summer, up from 77.27 kilowatts last year.

“We’re trying to maintain our reserve over 4 million kilowatts and then there will be a slim possibility over blackout,” said an official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. “We think the crisis may happen in the second and third week of August when electricity demand peaks due to the hot weather.”

To prevent a possible blackout in summer, the government last week unveiled a package of power saving measures, pledging to cut down consumption at government organizations by up to 20 percent.

It plans to encourage the public and companies to save power as much as possible, promising incentives.

It will also expand the time-based electricity rate system that charges more for the use of power during peak hours to encourage customers to use electricity during off-peak hours.

During peak hours, the interval between subway trains will be extended from one to three minutes.

But doubts have been raised as to how effective the power saving campaign will be or if it will help solve the problem ahead of the summer peak season, as the measures came hurriedly after operations of the two reactors were stopped.

Critics say the government is trying to force people to bear the inconvenience, even though it is responsible for poor management and supervision of nuclear reactor operators.

Experts also blame a wrong estimation on electricity demand and the lack of measures to cope with it for the current possible power shortage.

“The government estimates electricity demand in advance to set up energy policies,” Lee Su-il, a research fellow at the Korea Development Institute, said. “But the estimated figures have been far lower than the actual demand for years.”

He pointed out that the differences between the estimation and the actual demand for electricity have been widening, because the government overestimates the amount that it believes it can reduce.

“The government takes into consideration various factors to estimate the power demand and tries not to come up with unnecessarily high figures in order to save costs in generating electricity. But in the procedure, it has deducted the certain amount of electricity demand that it can manage to reduce twice, as it tried to estimate the demand based on a previous estimation and deducted the controllable amount of electricity demand from it again, even though it was already reflected in the previous estimation,” he said.

Critics also blamed the government for having simply tried to control the electricity demand to solve the current problem, because that cannot be a fundamental solution.

It has become critical for the government to resume the operation of four reactors which have been undergoing maintenance. If some of them can be ready before August, it will help increase the reserve level and save the country from experiencing blackouts.