Korea’s power supply stayed stable during the summer

Korea saw its summer power supply stay stable due to higher capacity, despite the record-breaking heat wave, an expert said Monday.

However, Kim Jin-woo, an economics professor at Yonsei University, told a conference that the government needs to improve its forecasts of electricity demand during the peak season.

The state-run Korea Power Exchange had predicted the maximum electricity load to reach 88.3 million kilowatt (kW) in July.

But the actual maximum electricity load rose to 92.48 million kW on July 24, with the power supply reserve ratio coming to a stable level of 7.7 percent, or 7.09 million kW at that time.

If the power reserves fall under 5 million kW, the government issues an alert and asks households and companies to restrict their use of energy.

To improve the accuracy of calculating electricity demand, Kim urged the government to reflect various weather forecasting indicators in calculating the demand. In summer, Korea’s power demand rises by 800,000 kW when there is a 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature, according to the government.

Yonhap