POWER September 2014 - 38

TOP PLANTS
Ulsan 4 Combined Cycle Power
Plant, Ulsan Metropolitan City,
South Korea
Owner/operator: Korean East-West Power Co., Ltd.
Courtesy: Korea East-West Power Co., Ltd.
Combined cycle plants have the advantages of being extremely efficient and can be
built in two phases when power needs peak unexpectedly. Ulsan 4 was built in response
to the country's 2011 power crisis for both reasons. The first task was installation
of the combustion turbines in time to meet the 2013 summer peak demand.
The steam plant portion of the project was completed a year later.
Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
T
he Republic of Korea's (South Korea's)
electricity consumption has grown an average
of 5% annually over the past decade,
and the nation remains the world's ninth-largest
energy consumer (based on 2011 data). South
Korea also imports about 97% of the fuel used
to produce its electricity because of a lack of
indigenous fuel sources. Economic growth is
largely determined by exports, which again are
driven by a reliable supply of electricity. South
Korea's GDP is expected to grow 3.8% in 2014
as exports continue to rise.
The country's energy needs heavily rely on
nuclear, coal, and gas-fired generation. Liquefied
natural gas (LNG) imports, nearly doubling
over the past decade, fuel the tremendous
growth in high-efficiency combined cycle
plants. South Korea's four nuclear power stations
(with 23 individual reactors) provide up
to about 30% of the country's electricity and
were slated to provide about half of the country's
capacity by 2024, according to its Fifth
Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply
38
and Demand, finalized in late 2010. However,
South Korea's nuclear industry experienced a
dramatic slowdown in its expansion plans after
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
in March 2011, followed by revelation of falsified
nuclear construction certificates for parts
used in 20 operating reactors in 2012. The
government's latest long-term electricity plan
(released at the end of 2013) adjusted its goal
for the nuclear share of South Korea's generation
down to 29% by 2035.
The loss of nuclear capacity put further
downward pressure on the country's reserve
margins, which have remained below 10%
since 2006, causing power shortages in parts
of the country and an increased reliance on imported
fossil fuels, principally LNG. On Sept.
15, 2011, the Korean Power Exchange was
forced, for the first time, to use rolling blackouts
to stabilize its system as reserve margins
dipped to dangerously low levels during a
summer heat wave. The day has been memorialized
in the country as the " 915 blackout. "
www.powermag.com
Shortly after the blackout, the government
quickly approved construction of several new
high-efficiency combined cycle plants. An expected
5,060 MW of new gas-fired combined
cycles are planned for commissioning by the
end of 2017. South Korea is also considering
building six new coal-fired plants with a total
capacity of 10,740 MW, starting in 2018 and
extending through 2020 under the new power
supply plan. (For more on the country's energy
challenges, see " South Korea Walks an Energy
Tightrope " in the November 2013 issue.)
Fast-Track Project
Korea East-West Power Co., Ltd. (EWP) is
a wholly owned power generation company
that was spun off from the government-owned
(51%), vertically integrated Korean Electric
Power Corp. (KEPCO) in April 2001. EWP is
one of the five non-nuclear generation companies
in South Korea. It currently provides about
11.1% of the country's electricity consumption
and has an installed capacity of 8,948 MW.
POWER | September 2014
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2014

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