Fixing the Chronic Issue of Solar Panels "Turning Off When It Rains"... LS Elec Enters the Business

Full-scale Entry into Small-scale Power Brokerage Business
Recruiting GW-level Aggregated Resources by Next Year

LS ELECTRIC officials monitoring the forecast of renewable energy generation. (Photo by LS Electric)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Not only the government but also the private sector is entering the business to control the unique 'intermittency' problem of renewable energy, where power supply is abruptly cut off depending on weather conditions. LS ELECTRIC is the main player. They plan to gather collective resources exceeding GW (gigawatts) by next year and officially promote the virtual power plant (VPP) business together with the Korea Power Exchange.

On the 31st, LS ELECTRIC announced that it will make a bold entry into the small-scale power brokerage business. This will be done by participating in the 'Renewable Energy Generation Forecasting System' implemented by the Korea Power Exchange since last year. The purpose is to provide stable power supply to renewable energy power producers and ESS (Energy Storage System) operators. Under the forecasting system, if the utilization rate of the collective resources recruited by the brokerage business operator is 10% or higher, and the forecast error rate is '6% or less,' a settlement fee of 4 KRW/kWh is paid; if the error rate is 'more than 6% and up to 8%,' a fee of 3 KRW/kWh is paid.

According to LS ELECTRIC, as the new and renewable energy market has rapidly grown recently, the intermittency problem of renewable energy has intensified, making it difficult to balance power demand and generation during frequency maintenance of the power system due to rapid fluctuations in generation by time depending on weather. For this reason, South Korea has been considering fostering virtual power plants (VPPs) that operate various distributed energy resources as a single power plant using artificial intelligence (AI) and automatic control technology. The Korea Power Exchange has been implementing the forecasting system as the first step in fostering VPPs since last year, and LS ELECTRIC has decided to participate.

LS ELECTRIC has secured a total of 23 MW (megawatts) of resources to participate in the forecasting system. After registering as a brokerage business operator with the Korea Power Exchange in August, they recently passed the final registration test. LS ELECTRIC plans to recruit additional solar power and ESS resources in mainland and Jeju areas, aiming to gather collective resources exceeding GW by next year. They also plan to expand their new business portfolio by promoting VPPs in line with the renewable energy bidding system that the Korea Power Exchange is designing to implement in Jeju next year.

An LS ELECTRIC official explained, "We passed the registration test with high forecasting accuracy based on our self-developed power generation forecasting model and ESS scheduling solution technology," adding, "On days with favorable weather conditions, we are recording up to 98% forecasting accuracy." They continued, "We will enhance profitability and lead the VPP market through improving forecasting accuracy and VPP system operation capabilities."

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