The government said on the 6th it is reviewing a plan to keep some of 21 coal-fired power plants with remaining design life after 2040 in service as emergency power rather than shutting them down. As the energy supply crisis has worsened due to the Middle East situation, it decided to consider continuing to use some coal plants it had planned to retire.
On this day, Minister Kim Seong-hwan of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment briefed the Cabinet on an "energy grand transition implementation plan" with these details. Kim said, "With the recent Middle East war, existing energy security strategies such as diversifying crude oil imports are no longer valid." He added, "It is time to establish a new energy security framework that can drastically reduce dependence on energy imports by expanding domestically produced energy such as renewables."
The ministry is working on a plan to phase out 60 operating coal-fired power plants by 2040. Of those, it decided to review a plan to use some of the 21 plants that will still have remaining design life after 2040 as energy security power sources. A ministry official said, "When fuel procurement is difficult due to sudden situations like the Middle East crisis and it is hard to increase renewable output immediately, we will review keeping some coal plants on standby so they can be run."
The ministry said it will accelerate its existing policy to increase the share of renewable power generation. It said it will move up the timing to raise the renewable share from 11.4% as of last year to over 20% from the current target of 2030. To that end, it plans to expand renewable installed capacity from the current 37 gigawatts (GW) to 100 GW before 2030.
The ministry plans to raise the share of electric and hydrogen vehicles in new vehicle supply to 40% before 2030. That ratio stood at 14% as of last year. To achieve this, it will convert police cars, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) taxis, rental cars, and corporate vehicles to electric early. It also said it will speed up electrification of construction machinery, agricultural machinery, ships, and two-wheelers.