Nation suffers electricity shortages

By Kim Tae-gyu

In the past, the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) remained alert merely over the sultry summer season when the consumption of electricity generally approached its production capacity.

Yet, things are totally different this winter as the seemingly endless cold spell prods people to operate energy consuming systems around the clock. The result: the country is running short of electricity.

In particular, a power failure earlier this month has sparked woes as any further outages could negatively affect the nation’s businesses including semiconductors.

Also coming under threat are ventures such as electric vehicles — Korea will not be able to get the plan rolling if the power supply is not stable.

“The business portfolio of Korea Inc. is mainly composed of energy-hungry industries such as semiconductors, steel and machinery. They are vulnerable to power cuts,” a Seoul analyst said.

“Most leading corporations are equipped with emergency generators. But if the power shortages continue, they could struggle to expand their facilities, which is bad news.”

Companies account for more than 50 percent of power use here and their electricity consumption has increased 10.6 percent over this winter compared to a year before.

Korea is home to the world’s largest chipmaker Samsung Electronics and runner-up Hynix Semiconductor. The country also houses POSCO, the world-renowned steel maker, and a flurry of machinery powerhouses.

“Another concern is our future growth engines like electric vehicles. The idea would lose commercial viability once and for all without a stable power supply. We might be in big trouble if power failures continue to haunt the nation,” the analyst said.

“What if one of our nuclear power plants stops working for some reason? We have to understand that Korea Inc. can be in a dismal situation at any time.”

On Monday when the power load reached an unprecedented mark, Yeosu Industrial Complex lost power at 4:10 p.m. causing disruptions at many refineries and chemical plants there.

The complex, located around 450 kilometers southwest of Seoul, accommodates factories of GS Caltex, LG Chem., Honam Petrochemical Corp. and Yeochun NCC.

Market observers worry that such a blackout might happen again because of the chronic power shortage.

According to the Korea Power Exchange, the peak electricity demand reached about 73 million kilowatts around noon Monday breaking historic highs for the fourth time this winter.

As a result, power reserves went down to 4 million kilowatts, which is low enough for the government to issue an alert.

Seoul is scrambling to grapple with the rising consumption of power with measures such as reducing room temperatures at government facilities or state-run corporations.

주식회사 대한민국, 전기부족에 발목 잡히나?

한국전력이나 전력거래소는 한 여름이면 전력 수급 때문에 비상모드다. 하지만 이제까지 다른 계절에는 수급문제로 고생한 경우는 드물었다. 하지만 한파가 계속되는 이번 겨울은 상황이 완전히 다르다.

올 겨울에만 최대전력수요 최고기록이 4번이나 경신되고 예비전력도 경보 발령수준인 400만kw에 근접하면서 한전과 전력거래소가 초비상 상태다. 이번 주에 여수에서 발생한 정전 사태도 긴장감을 고조시키고 있다.

문제는 추위가 계속되면서 전력수급 상황에서 지속적으로 문제가 발생할 경우 전기 품질에 민감한 산업분야인 반도체, 기계장비, 철강 등이 타격을 입을 수 있다는 점이다.

대기업들은 자체 비상 발전 시설을 유지하고 있지만 안정적 전기 공급에 차질을 빚을 경우 설비확장 같은 대규모 투자를 망설이게 되고 장기적으로 대한민국의 기술 경쟁력을 약화시키는 문제가 발생할 수도 있다.

또한 전기자동차와 같은 미래 성장 산업도 주춤하지 않을까하는 염려가 제기되고 있다.

이에 정부는 관공서 온도를 섭씨 18도 이하로 낮추고 백화점과 할인매장 등의 온도도 섭씨 20도 이하로 낮출 것을 요구하고 있다. 하지만 이런 조치로 근본적 수급체계의 개선은 어렵다고 관계자들은 목소리를 모우고 있다.