ed Blackout in winter

Koreans ought to change thoughts on energy use

Now that winter has set in, the government and state power company are entering into an emergency. At stake is how to prevent a blackout that hit Korea in September amid a power surge. Given the current supply-demand situation and a thin reserve ratio, another nationwide power outage could be a reality during mid-January if a nuclear plant or two stop operations ― like now. That will throw the nation into social and economic turbulence, far more damaging than in the fall.

The reason is Koreans’ overconsumption of electricity. If the nation’s per capita electricity use is 100, the comparable figures for Japan and Britain are 89 and 65 respectively. The growth rate of power consumption from 2005 to 2010 here is 30.6 percent, compared with negative 1.9 percent in Japan and negative 5.1 percent in Britain. It is a small surprise, thinking the nation’s power rate, which is half or one-third the level of other nations to even hover below production costs.

So the government is right to conduct campaigns to cut 10 percent of power use by obliging large buildings to keep the temperature at 20 degrees Celsius or lower and discouraging stores from using more than one neon signboard each. These are necessary steps, as many centrally-heated offices open their windows in mid-winter, and department stores decorate outer walls with numerous bulbs even before sunset.

But Seoul should go further by overhauling the power rate system in ways to introduce more carrots and sticks, especially for industrial consumers. The nation has kept electricity prices at artificially low levels to help enhance industrial competitiveness and curb inflation. By letting the exchange rate move more by market principles, the government can both make the domestic firms more energy-efficient, and better combat price spirals.

We can hardly agree in this regard with calls from large businesses and pro-business media outlets for building more thermal power stations, especially atomic power plants. True, nuclear plants are economical in the short run. Since the Fukushima nuclear incident, however, a majority of global countries are moving away from the nuclear option, which has proved neither safe nor economic, considering various other costs, including those for the disposal of their waste.

The neighboring country’s experience provides valuable lessons for Korea. The Japanese spent the summer without operating most of their nuclear plants, by using fans, working in short pants and sandals, taking naps in the afternoon and even encouraging crew cuts for men to save electricity. They succeeded in saving up to 20 percent of power consumption.

Tokyo is maintaining its nuclear power industry, but only for export purpose, while shifting toward nuclear-free power generation, such as renewable energy, at home.

All this comes in too stark a contrast with the Lee Myung-bak administration’s ``nuclear renaissance” policy. It is hard to understand why the nation, which is so desperate to exceed its former colonizer in every way, is not emulating the latter’s exemplary energy policy.

Sadly, all this seems to be reminder of a painful truth that Koreans have a long way to go before catching up with Japanese in stoic self-sacrifice and mature civic consciousness.