South Korean Power Shortage Concerns Spike as One Nuclear Unit Restarts, Another Fails

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources East Asia (Kofu-shi, Japan)--On December 13, Unit 1 at Uljin nuclear power station in South Korea stopped operating without prior warning due to condenser trouble. Unit 1's trouble follows the announcement of extended maintenance for Unit 4, which went offline in May. At least a quarter of Unit 4's heat transfer pipes were found in a state of severe corrosion and the unit will be restarted by next April. Though the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Unit 4 will be unavailable to help meet peak winter season demands, 950-MW Unit 1 resumed operations early this morning.

South Korea is facing the possibility of more blackouts during the winter, despite implementing power-saving measures. Yesterday, concerns increased when another 950-MW unit at Kori nuclear power station went offline due to generator trouble. As of now, Korea Hydro and Nuclear, a Korea Electric Power Corporation (NYSE:KEP) (KEPCO) (Seoul) spin-off that operates all nuclear power stations in South Korea, has not restarted the unit.

Currently, four of the country's 21 reactors are offline, including a 700-MW unit at Wolsong and another 1,000-MW unit at Uljin. Both are expecting restart by the middle of next week. On average, South Korea has a capacity of 73 gigawatts, however uncontrolled consumption of electricity has resulted in blackouts as well as a rise in the price of electricity. The government prevented KEPCO from raising the prices of electricity despite high inflation rates.

Other unplanned outages, including the shutdown of a unit at Ulsan thermal power station last week, have KEPCO on edge. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy introduced a plan that requires a decrease in consumption from large industrial sites and commercial buildings. Shortages, if they occur, are expected during the middle of next month.

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