2023-11-14 05:03:17
The Moon Jae-in administration’s Blue House issued an unrealistic prediction to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy that ‘even if we increase the proportion of power generation from renewable energy such as solar and wind power rather than nuclear and thermal power, electricity rates will rise by only 10.9% over the 12 years from 2018 to 2030.’ It was revealed as a result of an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection that the company was forced to release . Although the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy knew that electricity rates might rise by nearly 40%, it maintained its position externally that the increase rate would be only 10.9%. The announcement announced that the economic burden that must be borne by the public due to the expansion of renewable energy generation was reduced compared to the actual amount.
According to the audit report on ‘Renewable Energy Project Promotion Status’ released by the Board of Audit and Inspection on the 14th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to increase the proportion of new and renewable power generation to 11.7% by 2029 in the ‘7th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand’ established in 2015. there was. However, former President Moon Jae-in pledged in the 2017 presidential election to increase the proportion of new and renewable power generation to 20% by 2030.
When the Moon Jae-in administration took office in May 2017, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy told the ‘National Planning Advisory Committee’, which was the Moon administration’s presidential transition committee, ‘If the proportion of new and renewable power generation is increased to 20% by 2030, electricity rates must be raised by 39.6% by 2030. ‘ he reported. The calculation was that more than 140 trillion won more in electricity bills would have to be collected from the people over 12 years. Even this calculation was made assuming that the unit cost of nuclear power, thermal power, and new and renewable energy generation would not increase at all from 2018 to 2030.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy also said that in order to increase the proportion of new and renewable power generation, an additional 24.5 trillion won is needed, including 18 trillion won to reinforce transmission and distribution facilities and 6.5 trillion won to expand energy storage devices. Since the amount of power generation from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power varies depending on the weather, there is a need for many energy storage devices that store power in advance when the amount of power generation is high and then retrieve it when the amount of power generation is low. In addition, since solar power generation panels must be connected to the power grid one by one, transmission and distribution facilities must also be increased accordingly. If you neglect to expand these facilities, the entire power grid may be overloaded, and in the worst case, a blackout may occur.
However, upon hearing this report, then-Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Baek Woon-gyu and the Blue House Industrial Policy Secretary’s Office requested that the calculation be changed to indicate that the unit cost of new and renewable power generation would fall over time. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy assumes that the unit price of new and renewable power generation will fall by 30-50% from 2016 to 2030, and that the unusually low oil price situation, where Dubai oil was only $53 per barrel at the time, will continue in the future, and that electricity rates will fall by 2030. A forecast was made that it would rise by only 0.5 to 6.6 percent. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s forecast was later changed to 10.9% to reflect the Korea Power Exchange’s forecast, but it was only regarding a quarter of the initially calculated 39.6%.
The forecast released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy was criticized by the National Assembly and the media for not properly reflecting the rise in international energy prices and the increase in overall costs due to the expansion of new and renewable power generation. Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) also reported to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy that the expansion of new and renewable power generation might lead to increased costs, putting KEPCO in the red. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy maintained its position that the electricity rate increase due to expansion of new and renewable power generation would be 10.9% until the end of the Moon administration’s term, and only released data contradicting media reports nine times.
The analysis that KEPCO’s cost of purchasing electricity will increase due to the expansion of renewable power generation was also mentioned in a research report commissioned by KEPCO from an external research institute. However, it was found that KEPCO and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy deleted content such as ‘KEPCO’s power purchase costs may increase due to the expansion of nuclear power plants and new and renewable energy’ and ‘electricity rates are low and need to be increased’ from this report and submitted it to the National Assembly. .
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