SEOUL, KOREA - From now on, public establishments such as factories, large retail stores, commercial buildings, and public baths will be able to sell surplus electricity to an open market. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on November 3 that it has approved a revised rule on electricity market operations. According to the revised draft, operators of large facilities can take profit by selling electricity they save.

 

For example, a public bath in northern Seoul, which will sign up for the electricity trade scheme at the end of this year, will save a total of 5.88 million won a year, including 4.85 million won from the sale of 90 kilowatts of electric power while saving its own electric bill by 1.03 million won. A commercial building that saves 100 kilowatts of electricity in a year can get 6.55 million won of income including 5.40 million won in electric power sales and 1.15 million won in electric bill savings.

 

For this scheme to work, "electric power demand management operators" will be needed. They will aggregate the surplus electricity from users and sell it to Korea Electric Power Corp. through the Korea Power Exchange. The proceeds from this transaction will be shared with customers. The demand management operators will also provide a variety of information technology devices to users including the real-time electric power meter and the energy management system. They will offer additional services such as energy consulting.

 

Within the year's end, a total of 11 operators including IDR Service, Byucksan Power, and Grid Power will take part in the electric power demand resource trade market (called the "Negawatt" market) to be open on October 25. The number of operators will increase to 19 in the next year. The energy ministry estimated that the trade market scheme will be able to save about 1.9 million kilowatts of electric power by 2017, equivalent to the electric power generated by two nuclear power plants.

 

Artilce provided by The Korea Economic Daily