South Korea will begin building "virtual power lines" (VPL) next year, a measure seen as an alternative to constructing large-scale transmission lines.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and KEPCO (015760) held a results presentation on the 17th for a forum of industry, academia, research institutes and government on the power sector, sharing outcomes from eight expert forums run for about five months since April. The forums focused on discussing innovation tasks for the power industry and drawing up solutions to pending issues.
The VPL project is a leading example. The concept uses energy storage systems and other equipment to create virtual transmission routes without actually building physical lines, easing transmission congestion with existing facilities alone. It can reduce construction of transmission lines that draws resident opposition and ease bottlenecks in the grid. The ministry's budget proposal for next year includes 2.4 billion won for the project, with system development set to begin next year. The plan is also included in the 12th Basic Plan for Long-term Electricity Supply and Demand and will be expanded into a large-scale government support program by 2030.
The ministry will also push to revise notification rules to require newly built apartment complexes to link advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) data with KEPCO. The move would connect metering data from 1.34 million private apartment units to the meter data management system (MDMS), broadening the foundation for developing services based on power data.
The ministry and KEPCO said they would continue managing tasks that need further work after the presentation, raising their level of completion so they can lead to demonstration projects and commercialization. "We will continue to serve as a focal point that brings together the capabilities of industry, academia, research institutes and government to solve pending issues in the power industry together with the ministry," KEPCO CEO Kim Dong-cheol said.
