Officials check the real-time state of electricity supply and demand at the Korea Electric Power Corp.’s office in Suwon, 34 kilometers south of Seoul, on Dec. 19, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Nuclear power plants played a significant role in the energy market in South Korea this year, recording the highest proportion of overall electricity transactions in the past seven years, the power market operator said Monday.
The Korea Power Exchange reported that the volume of electricity transactions from nuclear power plants as of November of this year reached 152,958 gigawatt hours (GWh), accounting for 30.7 percent of the total volume of electricity transactions, the highest level since 2015.
Electricity transaction volume refers to the amount of electricity that state power utility Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) purchases from electricity producers.
Nuclear power plants’ volume of electricity transactions remained at more than 30 percent until 2016, except in 2013. During the previous Moon Jae-in administration, volume dropped to the 20-percent tier under a nuclear phase-out policy.
“In accordance with the policy to maximize the use of nuclear energy, it now takes less time to process the administrative work of preventive maintenance,” the nuclear power plant operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Corp. said.
“The Shin Hanul 1 nuclear reactor began to produce electricity last year after testing, contributing to the growing volume of electricity transactions.”
KEPCO reported that nuclear power plants produced 146,820 GWh of electricity between January and October of this year, up 14.8 percent from last year.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
