Director General for Industrial Technology Policy 

Cha Dong-hyung of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and

Energy. (Photo:MOTIE)

By Oh Chung-sook

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) is pushing ahead with projects to develop high-performance, super-small power generation systems and lossless DC power transmission and distribution segments in the energy industry. The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and MOTIE’s Director General for Industrial Technology Policy Cha Dong-hyung in which he spoke of the two megaprojects in the energy industry, part of the 13 mega-tasks in four arenas that Korea wants to develop as future breadwinners.

Question: Will you tell our readers about the current status, R&D plan, participatory companies, industrial spillover effects, and mid- and long-term development strategies of the high-performance, super-small power generation systems project your ministry will implement?

Answer: Countries around the world are scrambling to achieve higher energy efficiency, particularly advanced countries which are moving to develop power generation systems employing supercritical carbon dioxide. 

Many countries’ research is based on the fact that supercritical carbon dioxide is emerging as an excellent alternative to replace the water and steam being used for conventional power units that would rev up power generation efficiency by 30 percent and reduce the size by 75 percent compared to conventional units. The strengths of the planned high-performance, super-small power generation systems are summed up in 4Cs -- compact, cycle efficiency, carbon monoxide reduction, and cross cutting. 

Yum Chung-sup, senior researcher at the Institute for Advanced Engineering, said the supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems will come as a new technology to shift the global power generation market paradigm, and the hegemony will rest on how development and verification technologies can be secured. 

For the power generation industry, boosting energy efficiency by 1 percent is enormous. According to the second national energy master plan established by the government, enhancing energy efficiency by 4 percent within limited power complexes would save 4.6 million kw in 2030, amounting to having an effect of constructing four large-sized nuclear power units. The high-performance, super-small power generation systems is among the 13 mega-tasks in four arenas that Korea will develop as the nation’s growth engines, as MOTIE Minister Yoon Sang-jick announced in his work report to President Park Geun-hye this past Feb. 24.  

The conventional power generation industry, which uses water and steam, is a kind of red ocean industry since the industry is undergoing a shift from a technology-oriented competition to a price-oriented one with such countries as China making a strong showing in the market. 

Advanced countries come to the forefront of the development of supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems. Korean SMEs and mid-size superstars have the potential to develop small-sized supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems. An SME-oriented establishment of new value chains ranging from design to manufacturing, maintenance, and repair would evolve into a new power generation ecosystem, thus leading to a tapping of new overseas markets tailored to meet the demand for small-sized, multi-sourced power generation systems.  

R&D Status & Plan 

Korea falls behind advanced countries in terms of the development of supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems since Korean academic and research institute circles work on the R&D in the segment, and foreign governments and industry circles team up with the research.

Pohang University of Science and Technology and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have teamed up to build a comprehensive system to verify a 300kW-class supercritical carbon dioxide power generation system in connection with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)’s next-generation nuclear reactor project. KAIST, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), the IAE, and the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have each worked on their own study into supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems.

The United States is a global leader with the largest number of proprietary technologies related to the supercritical carbon dioxide power generation system segment. The U.S. Department of Energy has invested $40 million centered around the Sunshot project. The Obama administration, defining supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems as cross-cutting ones, plans to funnel $57 million from the national coffers. 

The Korean supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems project will be carried out in two stages for six years between 2015 and 2020 at a cost of 186.17 billion won -- 87.69 billion won from the national coffers and 98.48 billion won from the private sector.

The SME-oriented project call for exploring four detailed tasks and the top 10 core technologies related to high-performance, super-small power generation systems. As a track record of designing, constructing, and operating a 30MW-class power generation system has been secured through verifications, technologies connecting energy sources, including coal-fired thermal power, combined cycle power, nuclear power, photovoltaic power, and geothermal power, will be developed along with the projected design of a 300MW-class supercritical carbon dioxide power generation system for exporting. 

Corporate and industry participants

SMEs and mid-size superstars with overall technological prowess will likely participate in the development of module-type supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems with a focus on the development of a core system for small- and mid-size power generation and process design technologies unlike power units capable of generating tens of thousands of kW, the business turf of large-sized companies. Scores of SMEs with core technologies in each segment are seeking to partake in the project, and academic and industry societies and industry in the plant engineering and energy sectors show keen interest in the project.   

The project will be implemented as a win-win collaboration strategy between small- and large-sized companies with more SMEs participating, and it is also designed to build a new ecosystem in the energy market. We’re going to form technology forums among related academic and industry associations to expand technology exchanges and build human networks. 

Industrial spillover effects

The project is aimed at creating a new market by leading a shift in the global power generation paradigm, building a new power generation ecosystem and contributing to job creation.

Technology self-sufficiency in the power generation sector and promoting the power generation plant exporting industry will lead to securing the nation’s new growth engines. If the nation achieves a target of capturing a 22 percent share of the global market in 2030, the project is forecast to have an impact of creating 200,000 jobs and creating 73 trillion won in added values. 

Securing EPC, O&M, and core system technologies will likely enhance the Korean plant engineering industry’s technological prowess and profitability.

Mid- and long-term plan

The project is designed to make Korea a future energy industry powerhouse by localizing all areas of the Korean supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems industry ranging from proprietary technologies to finished plant products and commercializing Korean-made supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems as global standards and building a virtuous value chain in the supercritical carbon dioxide power generation systems segment.

Q: Will you elaborate on the current status, R&D plan, participatory companies, industrial spillover effects, and the mid- and long-term development strategies of the lossless DC power transmission and distribution project your ministry will implement?

A: The project is designed to build a micro-power grid by changing alternating current (AC) from power plants into direct current (DC) before transmitting power and reversing it from DC to AC to supply power to customers. The rationale of the implementation of the project is that the government needs to come up with steps such as moving overhead high-voltage transmission power (HVDC) lines underground as part of efforts to build distributed generation in accordance with the second national energy master plan established by the government. The reality is that it is not easy to construct additional large-scale transmission HVDC networks, as witnessed by the long-standing incident in which residents in Milyang, Gyeongsangnam-do, staged a violent protest to oppose the construction of 765kV HVDC towers, as well as the fact that a regional power supply imbalance can destabilize the power grid.

DC power from new and renewable energy sources and the demand for lossless HVDC are forecast to keep growing down the road. 

R&D Status & Plan 

Korea is now capable of handling engineering areas related to DC transmission and distribution to some extent, but the nation depends on foreign companies for design and test technologies. SMEs face market access barriers such as huge initial investment costs in such heavy electric machine segments as transformers and circuit breakers. A failure in localization is feared to bring about foreign companies’ encroachment into the Korean large-sized power transmission and distribution market. 

Corporate and industry participants

The project is designed to have SMEs team up with large-sized companies in three task areas -- power conversion stations, related components and machines, and digital load DC distribution systems.

Industrial spillover effects

The project aims at localizing all technology areas such as electric, electronics and telecommunications of the heavy electric machine industry, substituting for imports and creating new jobs, minimizing maintenance costs for stabilizing the power grid of the Seoul metropolitan area, and ensuring a stable power supply from large-sized power generation facilities. 

The project will likely bring about an impact of substituting for electric facility imports worth an estimated 10.79 trillion won and creating 27,148 jobs in 2020.

Mid- and long-term plan

The project aims at achieving a long-term target of taking up more than 10 percent of the global market in 2025 by proactively bracing for demand for replacing dilapidated electric facilities in advance and forming a virtuous value chain with win-win strategies between small- and large-sized companies through diverse technology convergence.