Why do power line expansions keep getting delayed in Korea?

Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) CEO Kim Dong-cheol speaks during a press conference at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in Sejong, Aug. 28. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published Sep 11, 2024 7:29 AM KST
• Updated Sep 11, 2024 5:05 PM KST

Repeated delays in the country’s power line expansion projects, aimed at enhancing electricity supply in response to growing demand, have largely been attributed to local residents’ objections fueled by unsubstantiated rumors and a lack of cooperation from local governments trying to appease discontented constituents, according to the chief of the country’s state-run utility company.

The belief has been reinforced by Hanam City's disapproval of the Korea Electric Power Corp.'s (KEPCO) yearslong joint plan with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, to upgrade and expand its over 40-year-old substation in the Gyeonggi Province city southeast of Seoul. The project is intended to boost power supply throughout the capital region, where semiconductor mega-clusters are being planned.

On Aug. 28, KEPCO CEO Kim Dong-cheol said one of the primary reasons for the repeated delays in such projects is the disapproval of local residents. The residents, according to KEPCO, typically argue the projects would impede local city development, emit hazardous electromagnetic waves, drop land value and ruin local scenery — claims that are unfounded, according to Kim. Additionally, they demanded that the project be repealed or the power cables be buried underground.

Kim also cited the unwillingness of elected local officials to cooperate with KEPCO as another reason for the delays.

Mayors or governors can pressure KEPCO by withholding support for various legal procedures the company must follow for each project, which includes selecting locations, conducting environmental tests and obtaining necessary licenses. According to KEPCO, local governments have been uncooperative in various administrative steps by either simply not responding or by deliberately postponing their responses.

Such a loose process has delayed each and every step of the legal procedures for power line expansion by up to three years — from site survey to environmental test, approval from the central government, site acquisition, restitution for local residents and local authority's approval for license issuance.

Many of KEPCO’s past projects were completed after being delayed for five years or longer from their initial schedules due to local authorities’ disengagement with each project, according to Kim. Dangjin City in South Chungcheong Province remained aloof from KEPCO’s 345-kilovolt (kV) power line construction project between the city and Asan in the same province, delaying site selection and postponing business license issuance. It delayed the project’s completion in overall by 12 years and six months. The city also delayed KEPCO’s another project between Dangjin and Songsan in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, by seven years and six months.

Siheung in Gyeonggi Province and Hoengseong County and Hongcheon County in Gangwon Province each caused delays of five years and six months, and Jangseong County in South Jeolla Province caused a delay of six years and five months, all using the similar tactics.

Kim said that the delays often result in legal disputes and waste of professional workhours, trillions of won in financial costs, unstable power supply to large-scale industrial complexes and limited connection to renewable energy resources concentrated along the country’s southern coast.

For example, due to the delayed Dangjin-Asan and Dangjin-Songsan power line expansion projects, low-cost power generation tools remained unfeasible from 2016 until 2022 and generated an extra cost of 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) for Dangjin Coal-Fired Power Complex and Taean Thermal Power Complex Division, both along the country’s west coast, to generate more electricity during the same period.

Electromagnetic wave fear

To Kim, Hanam City’s disapproval of KEPCO’s substation expansion project on Aug. 21 was an extension from the past when local residents staged a protest against new utility facilities in their neighborhoods because of unproven rumors, mainly fears of electromagnetic waves, and led local authorities to protect their voices.

“My office is at KEPCO Art Center in Seoul which is right next to a local substation. Other employees are also working there. And we’ve been just fine (health-wise),” Kim said, criticizing those fearmongers who claim the new Hanam substation will contaminate its surroundings with electromagnetic waves.

“There are over 100 substations in Seoul alone, which means almost every household is within 1 kilometer from any of those facilities but this poses no problem. We'll launch an administrative litigation against Hanam City in September. It'll take about a year to settle the issue.”

Kim said that electromagnetic waves from substations, if the facilities are distanced by 100 meters or farther, affect humans in a degree a washing machine or a refrigerator does. KEPCO also cites Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute's data from 2007 which stated that electromagnetic waves from a substation or a power line distanced at least 100 meters is measured 0.2 microtesla (μT) which is less than TV (0.4μT), vacuum cleaner (1.42μT), microwave (3.82μT) and electric mattress (6.31μT). It added that intensity of electromagnetic waves emitted from a power line of 154kV, 345kV or 765kV are only 0.12 to 1.8 percent of the country’s national standards.

Scientists agree on the safety of electromagnetic waves from substations. Some of them also think that local residents are objecting to substations not out of fear of the electromagnetic waves but because of other outcomes not in favor of their personal interests like possible devaluation of land or properties.

Ju Munno, executive director at the electrical apparatus research division under the state-run Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, said that modern indoor substations self-block electromagnetic waves emitted from inside so that passersby outside the building are hardly affected by them.

"Electromagnetic waves' strength is determined by the source's power and distance. The farther the wave travels, its intensity drops drastically. Same with electric mattresses or microwaves which emit stronger electromagnetic waves than how much people are affected around substations. Outside substations, electromagnetic waves are weaker than those inside an ordinary household. Besides, indoor substations are built so well nowadays people don't even notice them on streets," Ju said.

"To persuade local residents, KEPCO must invite them to the site at the beginning phase of the project and show them in person how much electromagnetic waves are being emitted from there. Without this step, it's difficult to earn the public's trust."

The industry ministry implemented the guideline on electromagnetic waves from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) which in 1998 defined 83.3μT as the safety standard for human. While Japan, Norway and Turkey mitigated the standard by raising it to 200μT, Korea, Switzerland and Italy remain at the original standard.

Kim also cited a joint research conducted by the World Health Organization which was joined by 54 countries and eight international organizations from 1996 to 2007. It dismissed the previously proposed relation between electromagnetic waves' extremely low frequency and human illnesses, saying that the correlation is negligible.

“Christopher Columbus, to win favor from natives in a land he had discovered during his journey, correctly predicted a lunar eclipse (using astronomical charts created by Abraham Zacuto) and successfully persuaded the natives who were unaware of such astronomic knowledge to provision him and his crew with food," Kim said. "This kind of ignorance shouldn't be acceptable now.”