Seung Il Moon, professor of SNU department of electrical and computer engineering
Nuclear or solar energy... Measures for stable energy supply are essential

[Professor Seung Il Moon during an interview at SNU engineering building laboratory]

With the continuous record-breaking extreme heat wave, the government decided to temporarily lower the residential progressive electricity tariffs for July and August. However, the government’s action did not meet the expectations of the citizens and led to many critical voices claiming this is only ‘peeing on frozen feet.’ Also, with the possibility of the heat wave persisting, there are concerns over whether there would be issues in electricity supply due to the government’s denuclearization policy.

During the interview on the 13th, electric power industry expert Seung Il Moon (57, past president of Korea Electrical Engineering and Science Research Institute), professor of SNU department of electrical and computer engineering, assertively said that this is an exaggerated concern.  He added, “There is little possibility that a problem will occur considering the current energy supply status. Since the peak (maximum power consumption) time is the problem, it suffices to set up a good countermeasure.”

He also said, “We should utilize new technology such as Energy Storage System (ESS) and not just rely on constructing power stations for securing standby power during peak time.” In other words, only relying on constructing new power plants for the supply of electricity during peak time leads to situations where some power plants operate only in the summer season and such waste should be prevented.

Other than energy storage technology, he also suggested connecting the power line with China, Russia, and Japan and buying power from these countries during the peak season. He especially emphasized that connecting the power line through Northeast Asia is beneficial to national energy security.

Professor Moon also criticized the current government’s policy only prioritizing renewable energy, saying it is nonsense to talk about energy conversion without plans for ESS construction. It is the same as trying to change diesel trains to high speed trains but only thinking of changing the trains without constructing the infrastructure such as high speed train rails.

ESS is a device that stores electricity during the low-consumption period for the peak season. Currently Korea’s ESS technology is regarded as the world best. Renewable energy such as solar and wind power can be inconsistent sources of energy depending on the solar intensity and wind strength, which makes ESS essential.

Professor Moon also pointed out that only 13% of the total electricity consumption last year was from households. Therefore, it would not be a problem to repeal the residential progressive tax. Also, he proposed that it would be inevitable to increase the industrial electricity price. The efforts of the previous regimes on adjusting the industrial electricity price to a realistic level should be continued to enable the restructuring of high energy consumption industry and discover new business in the energy field.

Actually, according to OECD, the industrial electricity price in Korea was 95.7 dollars per 1MWh in 2006, which was cheaper than the residential price(119.1 dollars). Also this is lower than most developed countries. Germany ($140.8), France ($105.8), Japan ($163.1), and England ($125.2) all well-passed a hundred dollars. Professor Moon emphasized that increasing the industrial price would not have a big impact since the electricity price took up only 1.5% of the manufacturers’ total manufacturing cost last year.

Professor Moon also said that currently the top 20 companies of the electricity line and cement industry are supported with 1 million kW of energy generation facilities including five nuclear power plants and this should be corrected.

According to Korea Key Industry Federation, industries with the highest proportion of electricity cost compared to manufacturing costs are the steel industry and the cotton industry, taking up 25%. The cement industry (22.0%), the paper industry (16.2%), and the petrochemical industry (11.0%) are the follow ups. He asserted that we cannot continue to drag these industries along and that it is better for the national economy to utilize 25 trillion won, used to construct nuclear plants for these industries, for corporate restructuring and new industrial investment.

Source : https://ee.snu.ac.kr/community/news?bm=v&bbsidx=47789
Translated by Kyungjin Lee, English Editor of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, jin11542@snu.ac.kr