Power supply authorities are strained as reserve power declined to below 5 million kW for several days due to unusually early hot weather and stoppage of a large power plant.
Though the government implemented the power supply and demand measure about one month ahead of previous years, the supply situation is still unfavorable, predictably continuing the state of walking on thin ice.
On June 7, reserve power dropped to less than 4 million kW, inviting alarm to power supply. At around 13:35 p.m. on the same day, reserve power recorded 3.5 million kW, subject to be managed in ‘attention’ stage. This is first time when power supply declined to the attention level in this year.
Power demand is managed in 5 stages depending on reserve power levels. When reserve power decreases to less than 5 million kW, it is managed in ‘preparation’ stage, and it is controlled in ‘attention’ stage when reserve power drops to level between 4 million kW and 3 million kW. When reserve power declines to levels between 3 million kW and 2 million kW, between 2 million kW and 1 million kW, and to level below 1 million kW, it is classified as ‘caution’ stage, ‘alert’ stage and ‘serious’ stage, respectively.
Power supply authorities start to implement load management program when the reserve power drops to below 5 million kW. Korea Power Exchange (KPX) had to open the demand resource market last month for 3 days in addition to opening the market for 3 hours in 2 days in March.
When reserve power declines to below 5 million kW, it is regulated to adjust demand by implementing the fixed period system, weekly load forecasting system, and demand resource market. In emergency situation when reserve power decreases to less than 4 million kW, it is ruled to implement steps, such as the urgent autonomous power-saving and direct load control.
But the problem lies in the fact that the electricity load management budget is already exhausted even before heat wave is started. KPX operated the demand resource market for 27 hours in 9 days in this year. This can be compared to that KPX operated the market for a total of 21 hours last year.
The instability in power supply comes from the situation in which supply resource is too insufficient while power demand is soaring. Particularly, power supply capacity remains at 66.8 million kW as some large power generation facilities, such as nuclear power reactors, are not in normal operation due to preventive maintenance or breakdown.
Power supply organizations expect reserve power will decline to 2 million kW ~ 3 million kW level when temperature further rises in this week. While the maximum supply capacity of power in summer reaches 78.54 million kW when power generation facilities operate to full extent, maximum power demand in this summer is expected to record 77.07 million kW, an increase of 4.8 million kW over last year.
As power demand-and-supply keeps unstable situation, the government urges the people to participate in power-saving drive. It intends to assure successful management of power demand by controlling consumption for cooling and adjusting summer vacation period at companies.
A manager at KPX said, “Since expansion of power generation facilities is limited, importance of demand management has to be stressed more. At the same time, electric charges should be readjusted to realistic level so as to curb power consumption.”
source: e2news
