KSGA Chairman Koo Ja-kyun

By Kim Yoo-chul

The government needs to invest more money in smart grid technology and to grant more subsidies to help related projects get off the ground.

Smart grids will help alleviate concerns about the cyclical impact of energy prices on competitiveness by both reducing peak demand and enabling expanded use of renewable energy resources, according to analysts and officials.

Korea has started to use its money a little more wisely, and will invest over $15 billion by 2016 to capture 30 percent of the global smart grid market.

The lofty economic goals include a projected 50,000 annual jobs created, $43 billion in lower energy imports and $3 billion in reduced power generation costs.

``It’s no exaggeration to say that Korea has taken off on smart grids. The smart grid industry has high growth potential and is actually growing. Seoul needs to be proactive,’’ said the head of the Korea Smart Grid Association (KSGA), in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

Koo Ja-kyun, chief executive of LSIS, has been leading the business lobby group over the last few years. Korea’s dominant power supplier KEPCO and KT are key members of the KSGA.

Seoul has begun initiatives to make the country a leader in smart grid technology as part of a 50-year low carbon green growth vision.

Under the initiative, Seoul is already implementing one of the largest smart grid test projects on the nation’s southern island of Jeju _ the first stop en route to the KSGA’s goal of an integrated smart grid.

But Koo says that Seoul is still passive in actively investing more for such projects, though he believes that Korea is ideally positioned to make big money from them because it is one of the world’s most wired countries.

``There are some concerns about the marketability of smart grids. The government should lead the way to further activate pending projects and it’s required to develop more win-win business models between companies and itself,’’ Koo said, stressing the government holds the key to smart grids taking off and yielding visible returns.

``Moving forward aggressively in this arena will enable Korea to become a major player in the worldwide smart grid market, joining the United States and China at the forefront. That’s the market that Korea should advance to,’’ according to the KSGA chairman.

Korea imports all its coal, oil and gas, which means paying high prices for energy could have a chilling effect on global competitiveness.

For a fine-tuned approach, the KSGA recently launched five subcommittees with 77 members from the organization and 86 industry experts. Koo said the government will fully review several ideas filed by the KSGA as to whether to adopt a new policy for smart grid initiatives.

``Companies are being asked to tackle concerns over the security of smart grids and how customers would know if their information had been compromised as they are worried that personal information could end up being used by third parties,’’ said an official from KT, which has a strong interest in smart grid businesses.