Korea East-West Power Co. (EWP) struck an MOU with Gyeongsangbuk-do and Yeongju City on Sept. 8 on joint cooperation and investment in a 1.2 trillion won project to develop a carbon free energy power plant at Yeongju City Hall.
The agreement is designed to spread the clean energy industry in accordance with the central government’s carbon neutrality policies, and it takes on a new significance since the mega project will drive regional economic growth and the nurturing of new industries.
In particular, public attention is on the implementation of the project when the Yeongnam region lacks power project sites.
The nation is planning to introduce a combined 1.5 Gigawatt carbon free power plant by 2035, according to the 11th master plan on power supply.
To this end, the government will conduct a competitive bidding contest. EWP will participate in the bid in cooperation with the provincial Gyeongsangbuk-do government and Yeongju City, and will nurture Yeongju as Korea’s carbon-free energy hub city.
Yeongju City is expected to earn some 17.4 billion won in regional support funds and see regional tax revenues surge to 100.8 billion won. There will be production spillover effects worth some 2,346 billion won.
The project is forecast to give a new vigor to the whole of Yeongju’s regional economy and industry ecosystem in the next 10 years.
The latest project, being connected with the advanced bearing national industrial complex Yeongju City is implementing, is expected to build groundwork to create the industry cluster of combining energy and manufacturing industries.
It is expected to have positive spill-over effects in attracting new industries, such as AI and data centers.
EWP President Kwon Myung-ho said, “The investment is a mega project EWP will implement as a future strategy, which will contribute to the national hydrogen economy and regional economic development, and we will spearhead into clean energy industry transition by continuously expanding technology development and investment in the years to come.”
EWP Joins Forces with Hyundai Motor to Verify Hydrogen Fuel Cell System
Korea East-West Power Co. embarked on a project to verify a hydrogen fuel cell operation system upgrade connected with photovoltaic power generation facilities at EWP’s Ulsan Power Complex on Sept. 11.
There have been frequent issues of restricting power output, caused by power changes and reception limits of the power grid, corresponding to weather conditions amid an expanding supply of renewal energies.
The conventional fuel cells, limited to the operation of fixed output, find it hard to cope with variability, and such problems have emerged as a factor to hinder the expanding of renewal energies and the stability of the power grid in the years to come.
Subsequently, securing of technologies to operate next-generation capable of adjusting output in real time has been highlighted as core technologies to achieve the stability of the power grid and spreading of renewable energy supply.
EWP is developing a flexible operation system designed to regulate the real time output of hydrogen fuel cells correspond to the power amount being generated by photovoltaic power plants in connection with a 0.5-megawatt photovoltaic power at the Ulsan Power Complex and a 1-megawate hydrogen fuel cell localization verification facility, the nation’s largest one, now under way.
The project is designed to upgrade hydrogen fuel cell operation systems, such as global top-tier high-speed output control technologies and the operation of lowest-load stability operation functions.
Through the project, EWP intends to secure technology related to the operation of integrated power using virtual power plants based on renewable energies and distributed energy resources business.
Hyundai Motor tries to build groundwork in new business areas in the future by verifying high-precision and high-speed output control technologies of hydrogen fuel cells for generation, developed by its own and strategies to operate fuel cells in a stable fashion.
Eom Sang-min, president of EWP Future Technology Convergence Research Institute, said. “This task is designed to develop core operation technologies capable of using flexible power resources in business areas, such as virtual power plant based on distributed energy resources, and EWP will spearhead into the development of eco-friendly power generation technologies for carbon neutrality.”
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