Hanam-si Officially States, "Controversy Over Dongseoul Substation Expansion... Facts Are Different"

Indoor Construction and Expansion of Dongseoul Substation
Site Confirmed by KEPCO in 2022
Regret Expressed Over Disclosure of KEPCO-Hanam City Business Agreement

Gyeonggi Hanam City (Mayor Lee Hyun-jae) clarified the facts regarding the controversy over the expansion of the Dongseoul Substation through an official statement on the 4th.

A view of Hanam City Hall. Provided by Hanam City

Hanam City emphasized that the claim made by the Dongseoul Substation Expansion Opposition Special Committee in their statement?that Mayor Lee Hyun-jae was unaware of the substation installation plan in advance?is not true, and that administrative procedures, including the business agreement process with KEPCO, were conducted transparently.

Hanam City stated that the 'Indoor Construction and Expansion of Dongseoul Substation' was a matter confirmed by KEPCO in January 2022, before the launch of the 8th local government administration, in accordance with the 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Subsequently, KEPCO held a total of four project briefing sessions (from May to June 2023) for representatives of residents in the Gam-il area, during which no opposition opinions were received at that time.

KEPCO and Hanam City informed the project plan and collected opinions through public inspection and announcement to residents in September 2023, following a request for opinion inquiry on the Development Restriction Zone Management Plan (draft) by Gyeonggi Province, and even sought opinions from the Hanam City Council, but no significant opposition was reported.

After this process, a business agreement was signed between KEPCO and Hanam City; however, from June 2024, opposition opinions were continuously received, and KEPCO’s resident project briefing was canceled, leading to a judgment that resident acceptance was lacking, resulting in the termination of the agreement on August 23 of the same year.

Hanam City also mentioned that the Gyeonggi Province Administrative Appeals Commission recognized a partial non-disclosure decision regarding the agreement’s disclosure and explained that the confidentiality clause in the agreement was at KEPCO’s request.

The Gyeonggi Province Administrative Appeals Commission stated, “Most business agreements signed with local governments are declarative in nature,” and issued a disposition to disclose the agreement, while ruling that related materials generated during the agreement drafting process may remain undisclosed.

Furthermore, Hanam City strongly refuted claims that the expansion of the Dongseoul Substation was compensated by support for the undergrounding project in the old downtown area.

The Dongseoul Substation Expansion Special Support Project was halted due to opposition to the substation expansion during negotiations with 12 out of 19 complexes in the Gam-il New Town, and Hanam City emphasized that no support has been received or decided by KEPCO to date.

The undergrounding project in the old downtown area was selected for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s ‘2024 Green New Deal Overhead Line Undergrounding Public Contest Project’ and is being promoted as an independent budget project totaling 6 billion KRW, funded by the national government (1 billion KRW), Hanam City (2 billion KRW), KEPCO (1.6 billion KRW), and telecommunications companies (1.4 billion KRW). Hanam City expressed strong regret over baseless suspicions, stating, “The undergrounding project is unrelated to the substation expansion.”

Hanam City stated that the Dongseoul Substation issue will proceed according to legal procedures, prioritizing the opinions of Gam-il-dong residents.

A Hanam City official said, “Administrative procedures have been conducted as transparently as possible, and we will continue to prioritize residents’ positions,” adding, “We will continuously expand the undergrounding project in the old downtown area to ensure a clean urban environment and safe pedestrian environment.”

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