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High winter energy use could replace summer as power king

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2915242

Korea is facing possible blackouts because power demand keeps growing as the thermometer keeps dropping and the bitter weather shows no sign of ending.

Minister of Knowledge Economy Choi Kyung-hwan yesterday urged the nation to participate in an effort to cut back on power used for heating.

�Recently energy demand has been rapidly growing and has broken records in the four days since the new year,� Choi said. �The highest demand was 68.56 million kilowatts on Jan. 8.

�This is 5.35 million kilowatts higher than the 63.21 million kilowatts that peaked last summer. Even more, this [difference] is equal to the energy generated from the four nuclear reactors to be exported to the United Arab Emirates.�

The ministry said every time the temperature drops 1 degree Celsius, power demand increases by 40,900 kilowatts.

Choi emphasized that the power reserve as of Jan. 8 has fallen to 4.41 million kilowatts, a cushion of 6.4 percent. �Usually a reserve of around 6 million kilowatts is considered safe,� Choi said. �A sudden surge in power use, however, could drop the reserve to a level of below 4 million kilowatts. With a shortage in power reserve, we may face a widespread blackout if one of the major power plants unexpectedly breaks down.�

The reserve rate in 2007, which held the previous record, was 7.2 percent with production capacity of 66 million kilowatts. Jan. 8�s power production capacity was 73 million kilowatts.

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