Chungnam, Focused Investment in Facilities for Urban Gas Supply-Excluded Areas

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province plans to increase the overall urban gas supply rate by focusing facility investments on areas underserved by urban gas supply.

The province announced the "Five-Year Urban Gas Supply and Demand Plan (2022-2026)." The plan includes annual expansion measures for urban gas supply in rural fishing villages and suburban areas over the next five years.

The core of the plan is to invest 265 billion KRW over five years to extend 510 km of pipelines and supply urban gas to an additional 143,000 households.

Through this, the province aims to raise the urban gas supply rate in Chungnam to 79% by 2026.

Currently, Chungnam has a total pipeline network of 2,699 km supplying urban gas to approximately 719,000 households. With the additional facilities planned, the province expects that by the end of 2026, about 863,000 households in Chungnam will be able to use urban gas.

The urban gas supply facility investment plan will be implemented by dividing the 15 cities and counties in the province into three zones by business operators to ensure stable supply within the province.

The first zone includes nine cities and counties: Cheonan, Gongju, Boryeong, Asan, Nonsan, Geumsan, Buyeo, Seocheon, and Cheongyang; the second zone includes five cities and counties: Seosan, Dangjin, Hongseong, Yesan, and Taean; and the third zone consists of Gyeryong City.

This year, the investment budget totals 54.6 billion KRW, with plans to extend 121 km of pipelines to newly supply urban gas to about 31,000 households.

In particular, the province plans to concentrate 38.4 billion KRW (70%) of this year's total investment budget on 87 underserved urban gas supply areas to resolve energy imbalances.

In these underserved areas, 84 km of urban gas supply pipelines are scheduled to be extended, which is expected to provide urban gas to an additional 7,200 households. The investment for underserved areas includes subsidies of 5.478 billion KRW from the province and city/county governments.

Based on the urban gas supply and demand plan, the province will announce the supply facility construction plan by next month and begin full-scale project implementation from April.

A provincial official stated, "To stably supply urban gas throughout the province, we will expand pipeline networks by the three zones and actively encourage investments by urban gas companies to promote supply in underserved areas. Through this, we will focus administrative efforts to ensure that residents in underserved urban gas areas are not left in energy welfare blind spots, such as fuel cost reductions."

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