Hana Financial Investment, "Green New Deal to Accelerate with Disclosure of Future Power Grid Investment Information"

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Starting from July next year, the expansion of information disclosure on future power grid investment plans is expected to accelerate the Green New Deal.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has established a public system on its website to allow power producers to easily check regional facility margin information. From July next year, additional information such as margin data reflecting future power grid investment plans and possible connection times will be disclosed.

On the 4th, Jaeseon Yoo, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, stated in a report, “Although side effects such as connection waiting have appeared due to the increase in renewable energy facility capacity exceeding the expansion speed of transmission and distribution networks, these issues can be fully resolved if related information is disclosed,” adding, “Renewable energy facility supply will be smoothly carried out in proportion to the speed of power grid investment.”

Since 2016, policies guaranteeing grid connection for renewable energy facilities under 1 megawatt (MW) capacity have been implemented. This policy aims to promote the spread of small-scale distributed power sources. As power generation facilities rapidly increase, the number of facilities waiting for connection is also rising. As of cumulative data in August this year, the amount of grid connection applications received by KEPCO is 14.4 gigawatts (GW). Among them, the capacity waiting due to insufficient transmission facilities is 4.2 GW, accounting for 29% of the total application volume.

KEPCO plans to resolve 3.2 GW of the waiting connection capacity by next year. The remaining 1 GW will be addressed by shortening the substation construction period from six years to three years and increasing the allowable connection capacity of distribution lines from the existing 10 MW to 12 MW.

Researcher Yoo explained, “To solve grid issues, we will shift to a proactive reinforcement system by pre-building transmission and distribution facilities in areas expected to receive connection applications and promote timely connection by constructing small-scale, low-capacity distributed power facilities near renewable energy power plants to shorten construction periods.”

He also added, “We will improve related systems and standards such as pre-connection-post-control and application of planned standard capacity to expand the acceptance of existing facilities. While previously the facility capacity was applied as is when reviewing transmission network capacity, considering the low likelihood of renewable energy output reaching 100%, we plan to apply 70% of the facility capacity to optimize transmission network operation.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.