South Korea affirms feasibility of "Asian super grid"

China Energy Storage Network: According to Yonhap News Agency, Cho Hwan-ik, CEO of Korea Electric Power Corporation, said at a power company symposium on November 1 that leaders of various countries have recognized the importance of establishing an energy connection system in Northeast Asia.

Zhao Huanyi said that after research, Korea Electric Power believes that it is economically and technically feasible to establish an Asian super grid covering South Korea, China, Japan, Mongolia and Russia.

A spokesman for Korea Electric Power Corporation said the Asian super grid would allow countries to dispatch electricity to each other in the event of natural disasters, helping to maintain regional power supply stability.

During his visit to Russia in September, South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Russia to join the Asian super grid and further build the Northeast Asian special economic zone and multilateral energy security system.

Cho Hwan-ik stressed that the Asian Super Grid has become an important topic of the Northern Economic Committee directly under the South Korean president. The establishment of a super grid in Northeast Asia has gone beyond the economic level and will help ease the tense situation in Northeast Asia.

The Asian Super Grid is a massive multinational project that aims to build solar or wind farms in Mongolia and transmit electricity to major Asian power users such as China, Japan and South Korea via ultra-high voltage direct current cables. The super grid will allow Northeast Asian countries to share energy supplies, especially in the event of natural disasters.

It is reported that after the power grid is built, China and Russia can also export clean electricity generated by wind and solar power. Energy cooperation among Northeast Asian countries will be more economical and environmentally friendly.

Cho Hwan-ik repeatedly pointed out that the supergrid is a very important technology that can address the challenges of emission reduction and climate change. South Korea looks forward to working with Asian partners to carry out international cooperation, make full use of renewable energy, and ultimately achieve the interconnection of the Asian supergrid.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son first proposed the plan to build an Asian super grid after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. The goal is to connect the power distribution systems of Japan, China, South Korea, Mongolia and Russia to improve the overall power supply security in Northeast Asia.

On March 30, 2016, State Grid Corporation of China, Korea Electric Power Corporation, SoftBank of Japan and Russian Power Grid Company signed the "Memorandum of Cooperation on Northeast Asia Power Grid Interconnection" in Beijing.

However, some analysts believe that it will take several years to reach a consensus on multilateral agreements. For example, the countries previously proposed to build a natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and South Korea, but it is still a paper talk. In addition, South Korea has not yet built an undersea cable capable of carrying 800,000 volts of direct current, which is also an obstacle that the Asian super grid project must overcome.

Compared with the EU, the Asian supergrid has to overcome more institutional, legal and technical barriers. Cross-border power cooperation requires unified technical and legal standards, but Asian countries have different power transmission technology standards, huge differences in legal systems, and uneven levels of openness in power markets.

More importantly, the implementation of this long-term plan is premised on sufficient political mutual trust, otherwise cross-border electricity transactions are likely to be fraught with security concerns.

UBS and Wood Mackenzie also believe that such power interconnection faces multiple obstacles, including a series of challenges behind connecting different power grids and infrastructure, and how to price electricity.

But Kang Seung-kyung, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, said that technically the plan was not impossible to achieve, but there was still a long way to go to reach a political agreement and actually build the power grid.