Early Heatwave Drives Daily Peak Electricity Demand... Emergency Supply Reserve Margin

As the heatwave intensifies and electricity usage surges, officials are checking the power supply situation at the System Operation Center of the Power Management Department, Gyeonggi Regional Headquarters, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Suwon Special City on the 4th. / Suwon - Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Dongwoo Lee] This week, the maximum power demand has reached an all-time high, putting power supply on high alert. A full-scale effort is expected at the end of this month to early next month to prevent a blackout.

According to the Korea Power Exchange on the 9th, the maximum power demand on the 7th was 92,990 MW (megawatts), marking the highest level this year. This surpassed the previous record of 92,478 MW set during the historic heatwave in 2018.

On that day, the reserve power was 6,726 MW, and the supply reserve rate dropped to 7.2%. This is significantly lower than the industry's evaluation of the stable power supply margin, which is a reserve power of 10,000 MW and a reserve rate of 10%. When reserve power is low, the possibility of a power crisis due to sudden generator shutdowns or abnormal temperatures exceeding expectations cannot be ruled out.

Due to the early heatwave, the maximum power demand has been breaking records daily. On the 4th, the maximum power demand was 89,337 MW, on the 5th it exceeded 90,000 MW for the first time this year at 90,855 MW, and on the 6th it recorded 91,938 MW. As the maximum power demand increases, the supply reserve power has fallen below 10,000 MW.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy forecasts that the maximum power demand in the second week of next month will reach 91,700 to 95,700 MW, indicating that power demand will be most concentrated this summer. The Korea Power Exchange explained, "Due to the inflow of hot and humid air currents over the Korean Peninsula, heatwave warnings have been issued in most regions nationwide, with the perceived temperature exceeding 33 to 35 degrees Celsius. The continuous heat and tropical nights have caused a surge in cooling demand. Additionally, power demand increased as solar power generation decreased due to cloudy weather."

The problem is that while the maximum power demand is expected to continuously break records this summer, the supply capacity is limited to 100.7 GW. This summer's power supply capacity only increased by 0.2 GW compared to last year due to the retirement of aging coal power plants and maintenance schedules of various power plants.

The Korea Power Exchange plans to secure additional reserve resources without gaps and promote power demand reduction mainly in public institutions to ensure there is no inconvenience in power usage during the summer season.

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