Why South Korea Lacks Grid Infrastructure to Transmit Surplus Power

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Today, I would like to talk about the most critical bottleneck facing South Korea's energy ecosystem: grid congestion.

Currently, Korea suffers from a severe geographical disconnect between power generation and consumption. While nuclear power plants on the East Coast and solar farms in the Honam region generate surplus electricity, the transmission routes to the Greater Seoul Metropolitan Area—where semiconductor clusters and AI data centers are concentrated—are severely blocked. Compounded by local opposition, regulatory delays, and KEPCO’s financial deficit, grid expansion has been delayed for over a decade with no clear end in sight.

Under these circumstances, could Power-to-Gas (P2G)—a method used overseas to convert surplus electricity into hydrogen for storage—serve as a viable alternative?

While many worry about seawater desalination costs, desalination actually accounts for merely 1–2% of total hydrogen production costs, making it a negligible barrier. The real challenge lies in energy conversion efficiency. In the process of converting electricity into hydrogen and back into electricity, over 60% of the energy is lost into thin air.

Conversely, High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission—which transports electricity directly—requires massive initial capital investment, roughly 10 billion KRW per kilometer for converter stations and cabling. However, its transmission losses are remarkably low, at just 5–10%.

Given South Korea's geographic constraints, where trans
mission distances remain within 500 kilometers, establishing an HVDC transmission network as soon as possible—despite its high upfront costs—is far more economically sound in the long run than absorbing the immense ongoing losses from hydrogen conversion year after year.

Ultimately, unblocking the nation's industrial lifeline requires bold policy decisions: enacting a special law and driving government-led grid expansion. Thank you.

#Electricity #Shortage #Grid #Cost #RenewableEnergy #Hydrogen #Conversion #Investment #Comparison


Location: 대한민국

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing Gyeonggi Techno Park

Introducing Gyeonggi Techno Park, a source of pride for me. The South Korean government identified Silicon Valley as the driving force behind the Third Industrial Revolution in the United States and formulated a medium to long-term plan for strengthening the technological infrastructure in 1995. To foster regional-specific strategic projects and achieve national balanced development, it established a special law on supporting industrial technology complexes and designated regional technoparks in 1998. In Gyeonggi Province, six regions participated in a competition to attract technopark projects, among which the consortium backed by the national industrial complex Smart Hub, located in Ansan City, was selected as the operator of Gyeonggi Techno Park. Since its establishment in 1998, it has attracted government-funded projects to nurture bio, robotics, IT, and automotive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Simultaneously, it aimed to attract overseas global companies and national ...
Read more

Debt Escape Strategy

Image
 The economy is currently facing turbulent times, and many people are struggling. I am currently reading a book titled In the Next Five Years, Only Those Without Debt Will Survive . The term "credit" is one coined by the financial industry. A high credit score means a customer is highly profitable. Therefore, it can be said that "credit" and "debt" are essentially interchangeable terms. The credit cards we use in our daily lives can also be called debt cards. Using a credit card essentially means using debt based on credit, and if you're utilizing revolving services, you're essentially taking out a high-interest loan. No one embraces debt out of love. If a family member falls seriously ill, a parent's business encounters difficulties, or multiple issues converge, the burden of debt can extend to the children. Many families find themselves in such situations, overwhelmed by the weight of debt and facing threats to their survival. The worst-case ...
Read more

Must Life Have Meaning?

Image
 In 2015, I listened to a lecture by Professor Dae-Shik Kim from the Department of Electrical Engineering at KAIST. The first slide had the sentence: "Must life have meaning?" The lecture discussed how, as AI technology evolves, humans will face challenges from machines armed with AI. From the universe's perspective, the world is the master, and individuals are the subjects. Individuals are born into given environments, age, and eventually disappear. Why are humans destined to age and die? Professor Kim references the world's first novel, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Humans were granted an elixir of eternal youth by the gods but it was taken by a serpent. When they asked for another, the gods sharply refused. As a result, humans live their lives running their course like relay runners and then exit. Nature, the master, gave more energy and resilience to the young, while the elderly, deprived of reproductive power, are neglected. And so, the question resounds again like a sh...
Read more