High Temperatures in South Korea Could Mean Rolling Power Outages

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--South Korea has been suffering a brutal heat wave that is threatening to inflict rolling power outages similar to those the country suffered in September 2011.

"Power demand is expected to top the 80 million-kilowatt (kW) level in the first half of this week," said Yoon Sang-jik, the Minister of Trade and Industry, in an emergency statement. "This is a whopping 3 million kW higher than last summer's peak demand."

Last Friday, power demand reached a record high of 79.35 million kW, which topped the country's power generation capacity of 77.15 million kW. Power reserves temporarily dropped to 3.29 million kW, below the safety-level margin of 3.5 million kW.

The ministry warned that despite planned emergency measures, power reserves were estimated to plunge to 1.6 million kW.

"An abrupt breakdown of a single power generator would lead to a rolling power cut-off as on September 15, 2011," Yoon said.

The minister requested all factories, households, shops and public institutions to refrain from using electricity from 10 am to 6 pm for three days this week and urged them to keep indoor temperatures at no lower than 26C.

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