'One Less Nuclear Power Plant'

By Walt Patterson

The citizens of Seoul, led by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) under Mayor Park Won-soon, are setting an example for cities everywhere.

In April 2012, the SMG launched a program with the slogan "One Less Nuclear Power Plant," to reduce the city's use of energy by 2 million tons of oil equivalent, equal to the annual output of a nuclear power plant, and to reduce its environmental impact accordingly.

The citizens of Seoul were inspired. They achieved their target in June 2014, six months ahead of schedule. Now the SMG is launching Phase 2 of the program, confident that the citizens of Seoul can do even better.

In the course of Phase 1 the SMG invited a group of 10 international energy experts to form what became the Seoul International Energy Advisory Council, or SIEAC. My colleagues on SIEAC did me the honor of making me its chair. In November 2013, we on SIEAC took part in the first Seoul International Energy Conference. We also presented the SMG with nine recommendations that might help to shape Phase 2 of the program.

Since that time we have been given an opportunity to review the draft document laying out the aims and details of Phase 2 of the Seoul Sustainable Energy Action Plan, a yet more ambitious and far-reaching program. At the official launch of Phase 2, SIEAC wishes to congratulate Park and his SMG colleagues on its scope and substance.

In our comments on Phase 2, we stressed the need to gather and publish accurate and detailed data on the way Seoul now uses energy of every kind, and on the potential energy resources available in and near Seoul. Analyzing this data will help to identify opportunities for improvement.

We emphasized the need to give priority to increasing energy efficiency, particularly the performance of buildings. The program should pay close attention to measuring, recording and disseminating data about how individual buildings now perform, to identify and take full advantage of the potential for upgrades, including insulation, lighting, heating, cooling, motors and electronics. That should apply to residences, public buildings, office buildings, schools, hospitals and industrial buildings alike.

We suggested the possibility of introducing and developing local systems, perhaps within neighborhoods, to distribute electricity and heat more effectively, based on a thorough analysis of the need for energy services, to take advantage of local resources under local control. Such local systems would also make the best use of Seoul's renewable energy, especially photovoltaic electricity.

One crucial aspect of Phase 1 was its success in enlisting active participation from the citizens of Seoul, individually and in their many affiliations. That will continue to be a key to success for Phase 2. The organization of such a large-scale, long-term program is a challenge.

It includes wide-ranging proposals to involve small businesses, major industries, communities, welfare bodies, youth groups and other social centers as active players in particular facets of the program. We of SIEAC were encouraged to see that Phase 2 intends to create a Seoul Energy Corporation ― the name is still under discussion ― to maintain a coherent overview of program activities, particularly expenditure and investment both by government and by private business.

SIEAC recommends closer involvement of universities in program design and activities, both to utilize the knowledge and experience of Korea's academics and to foster the enthusiasm of their students, whose future the program will profoundly influence.

An excellent example for fruitful cooperation with universities could be the design and implementation of microgrids at university campuses. That would allow at the same time for research and development, training and full-scale demonstration of innovative systems that maximize energy service autonomy. These concepts can then be reproduced in neighborhoods throughout the city.

We of SIEAC look forward to working with our Korean colleagues, for the Second Seoul International Energy Conference, Nov. 10-14, 2014, and for months and years to come. We are sure that the citizens of Seoul will rise to the challenge.

The writer is associate fellow in the Energy, Environment and Development Program at Chatham House in London, U.K., and chair of the Seoul International Energy Advisory Council. His online site is http://www.waltpatterson.org.

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