Prime Minister Kim: "Increased Power Demand Due to Heatwave... Managing Supply with Extraordinary Resolve"

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum (third from the right) is inspecting the current status during his visit to the Naju Power Exchange on the 19th to check the summer power supply and demand. July 19, 2021. [Provided by the Prime Minister's Office] [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seonhee] Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom on the 19th stated, "Due to the heatwave and economic recovery, electricity demand has increased," and instructed, "Please manage power supply and demand with extraordinary determination to ensure that citizens and businesses do not experience inconvenience."

On the afternoon of the same day, Prime Minister Kim visited the Korea Power Exchange located in Naju, Jeollanam-do, and made this request to government and KEPCO officials. He emphasized, "The government has prepared various measures, including step-by-step scenarios to respond to the increased electricity demand," and added, "Please thoroughly prepare for unexpected failures of power plants, transmission and transformation facilities, as well as aging transformers, and make efforts to prevent power outages in apartments during the heatwave."

Attending the visit were Park Jin-gyu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Jeong Dong-hee, Chairman of the Korea Power Exchange, among others.

Chairman Jeong stated, "Although we have secured power supply capacity at the level of previous years this summer, we are preparing for increased electricity demand due to economic recovery and hot weather," and added, "Last week, actual electricity demand was recorded at the upper limit of the initially predicted standard demand level, resulting in stable power supply and demand." He continued, "As a full-scale heatwave is expected from this week, we will promptly deploy the secured supply facilities and power plants that have completed maintenance, and respond stably by utilizing reserve resources such as generator test runs and energy storage systems (ESS) according to reserve power levels."

In this regard, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced, "From this week, when maximum electricity demand is expected, until the 20th of next month, we will set a focused management period and make every effort to manage power supply and demand together with related power agencies."

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