Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) is spearheading the government’s major policy to nurture new energy industries. KEPCO, which declared a shift from such power supply and unit operation as conventional power transmission, transformation and distribution to a global energy leader last November, is firing on all cylinders to foster new energy industries.
The government recently held a “quantum jump” strategic meeting to upgrade new energy industries and took stock of its seven projects, KEPCO said. The projects include the Energy New Industry Fund, a fund for investments in new energy industries; frequency regulation ESS (energy storage system), an open infrastructure for electric vehicle charging; power big data; and exploration of overseas projects. Combined, they will cost more than 3 trillion won.
Most of the seven projects have gained ground. The Energy New Industry Fund will consist of an upper-level fund and a lower-level fund. The fund aims to raise 2 trillion won by 2017. The upper-level fund will be launched in October and the lower-level fund will make its debut in November.
In June, KEPCO designated Sudo Electric Technical High School as the venue of its first photovoltaic power project. The power company and Daejeon education authorities recently signed an MOU for the installation of photovoltaic power facilities on the rooftops of 250 schools in the Daejeon area.
KEPCO plans to invest 200 billion won this year and next year to install photovoltaic power facilities at about 2,000 primary and secondary schools. Starting in 2018, the project will be expanded to cover universities, research institutes and public organizations.
Advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) and frequency regulation ESS projects have walked the walk. About 200 billion won will be poured in this year to implement the second phase AMI project. KEPCO is offering a tender on installing AMI at 2 million households. KEPCO, which already operates AMI at 2.5 million households, targets 20 million households by 2020.
In June, KEPCO designated a successful bidder to supply 140MW battery and power conversion system for frequency regulation ESS. KEPCO, which operates 236MW frequency regulation ESS, plans to expand the capacity to a combined 500MW by 2018.
The EV charging infrastructure is divided into two projects—one dubbed “Star Network” being installed on KEPCO’s business operations and the other at open EV charging stations at public parking facilities. The project calls for a combined 613 EV charging stations.
A power big data center will be inaugurated in September. With the opening of the power big data center, big data owned by KEPCO, power companies and Korea Power Exchange, will be made public, and the private sector’s utilization of data in such areas as energy efficiency management, energy consulting, smart metering, renewable power generation, and IoT home appliances will be accelerated.
KEPCO is shifting into high gear to implement overseas projects. In May, KEPCO launched a pilot project to install a smart grid station in the United Arab Emirates. The smart grid station refers to the optimization of building energy consumption by combining data from air-conditioners, heating, photovoltaic power, ESS, AMI and smart gadgets as well as ICT.
Earlier, KEPCO signed an MOU on energy efficiency with Saudi Aramco.
The power company is carrying out pilot smart grid collaboration projects in Maryland and Virginia, in the United Sates.
KEPCO has a vision of building a global energy belt connecting North America, South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
In a recent development, KEPCO signed an MOU on the development of new and renewable energy in Mongolia with Newcom and Softbank. KEPCO President Cho Hwan-eik, who accompanied President Park Geun-hye on a state visit to Mongolia in July, agreed to implement projects on a step-by-step basis, starting with photovoltaic power, an area in which Korea is exporting related equipment.
Cho said chances are good that Korea will tap such new energy industries as the frequency regulation ESS sector. KEPCO President Cho also signed an MOU on joint research on the Mongolian power systems with the state-run Mongolian power transmission company NPTG.
Currently, Mongolia depends on Russia for about 20 percent of its power generation. With about 20 percent of Mongolia’s power generation facilities being obsolete, Mongolia’s power transmission losses stand at a range of 15 percent, four times higher than Korea’s. Given the current Mongolian energy situation, KEPCO plans to initially tap the Mongolian new and renewable energy industries before expanding its business arenas to power unit construction, modernization and power transmission/distribution consulting.
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