Reducing Coal Power... Workforce to Increase by 5.1% by 2030

Four Companies Including Namdong, Nambu, Dongseo, and Seobu Power
Expanded to 8,770 Operations and Construction Personnel

Coal Power to Renewable Energy Workforce
Extreme 'Labor Transition' Challenges... LNG Power Workforce Expansion Inevitable

Senior Thermal Power Workers with Over 10 Years Experience
Difficult to Align Technology and Labor Cost Gaps
Uncertain Job Transition to Renewable O&M
Gap Between Government Plans and Public Enterprise Management

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] It has been revealed that public power generation companies operating thermal power plants plan to increase their power plant operation and construction workforce by more than 5% by 2030. Although the policy to gradually phase out coal power generation as part of the decarbonization plan remains unchanged, the emphasis is on maintaining the workforce as much as possible by transitioning to renewable energy instead. Since it is not easy to transfer power generation personnel to other industries, there are calls to expedite the establishment of a concrete labor transition roadmap.

According to the 2030 mid-to-long-term workforce operation plans received on the 6th by the office of Kim Jeongjae, a member of the National Assembly’s Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee from four power companies under Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)?Namdong, Nambu, Dongseo, and Seobu Power, excluding Jungbu Power?the number of power plant operation and construction personnel, which is 8,343 this year, will increase by 5.1% to 8,770 in nine years.

Seobu Power’s power operation personnel will increase from 2,265 this year to 2,326 in 2030, and construction personnel will slightly increase from 127 to 169 during the same period. Namdong Power will also increase from 1,409 to 1,445 when combining operation and construction personnel during this period. Dongseo Power’s operation personnel will decrease from 2,275 to 1,924, but power plant construction personnel will surge from 76 to 654. Nambu Power also stated that operation personnel will slightly decrease from 2,096 to 2,061. These figures exclude renewable energy. Although the government decided to reduce the scale of coal power generation from 35.8GW in 2020 to 32.6GW in 2030, the operation and construction workforce appears to be increasing instead.

◆Maintaining Workforce with LNG Transition= The reason for the increase in personnel is liquefied natural gas (LNG) power generation. According to the 9th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, LNG power generation, which emits less carbon than coal, will increase from 41.3GW last year to 54.5GW in 2030. Namdong Power stated, "We will significantly expand the LNG workforce ratio from 8.14% last year to 39.1% in 2030 to strengthen safety management and on-site organization." A Dongseo Power official also said, "There is a plan for an LNG power plant, so construction personnel inevitably will increase."

However, there are criticisms that the workforce operation plans of power companies are conservative compared to the government’s decarbonization efforts. When the government announced the fair labor transition plan last July, it said, "Since the coal thermal power generation sector already has confirmed business reduction and transition targets, labor transition is expected to occur relatively soon," but public power companies do not seem to recognize this significantly.

◆Engineers Are Expensive Personnel for Renewable Energy Management= The energy industry and academia say that it will not be easy for highly skilled workers with more than 10 years of power plant operation experience to transition to renewable energy jobs. The main task of renewable energy management personnel is to inspect for equipment damage and wiring disconnections that occur after construction companies install solar power facilities, etc. The entry barrier is low enough that the ‘expensive engineers’ who mainly handled maintenance and operation of coal thermal power plants are not needed.

A Mr. A, who has worked at a thermal power plant for over 15 years, said, "Transitioning a veteran engineer with more than 10 years of experience at a coal thermal power plant to renewable O&M, which can be managed by flying just one drone, is tantamount to sending a high-level talent to be an apartment manager, so it will be difficult to match both the technical level and market value during job transfer or career change." He added, "Rather than receiving government-matched public-private training and going to a solar O&M company, I would rather look into career changes to major domestic engineering companies like Hyundai and Samsung or to former major clients such as General Motors (GM), Alstom, and Doosan Heavy Industries."

Another problem is the lack of a specific year-by-year and industry-by-industry ‘workforce transition roadmap’ in government measures. The government plans to expand job transition training by establishing ‘industry structure response specialized training’ for 100,000 people by 2025, proposing measures such as ▲discovering training demand with related industry associations ▲sharing excellent private training facilities ▲strengthening support when large companies provide their own training infrastructure ▲establishing ‘labor transition specialized joint training centers’ for industry-academia cooperation outside the metropolitan area. However, critics say this is out of touch with the reality of the coal thermal power industry. While it may revitalize local communities by linking employment for vulnerable groups such as youth and career-interrupted women, it is uncertain whether it will lead to ‘job transitions’ for existing high-level engineers with more than 10 years of coal thermal power experience.

Professor Jeong Dongwook of the Department of Energy Systems Engineering at Chung-Ang University, who is also the president of the Korean Nuclear Society, pointed out, "Even if job transitions proceed according to government policy, it is uncertain whether coal thermal power workers who have moved to the renewable energy industry will maintain employment." He added, "It is questionable whether coal thermal power engineers will accept the role of O&M managers at small-scale solar power companies with capacities of 1 to 100MW, rather than large battery (cell) manufacturers like Hanwha Solutions’ Q CELLS division, as ‘quality jobs.’"

The government also recognizes these issues and believes it needs to accelerate social dialogue among labor, management, and government. However, even if the pace of tripartite dialogue is increased, variables such as budget and licensing regulations may change depending on whether the speed of labor transition is adjusted in the national agenda to be established after the presidential election early next year, making it difficult to accelerate dialogue. Professor Jeong said, "When formulating policies, we must not overlook that the competitiveness of Korea’s power industry may decline and that there could be problems in terms of soundness in power operation."

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