South Korea plans to increase its nuclear power share to 32.8% by 2030

The South Korean government revised its previously formulated power supply plan to increase the proportion of nuclear power from 23.9% to 32.8% by 2030, and reduce the proportion of renewable energy from 30.2% to 21.5%. The Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Energy of Korea announced the 10th Electricity Supply Basic Plan (draft). The plan forecasts electricity supply and demand for the next 15 years. A central part of the plan is the proportion of nuclear and renewable power generation. The new plan reverses the previous government's policy of phasing out nuclear power and increasing the share of renewable energy.

However, the proportion of coal-fired and liquefied natural gas (LNG) power generation did not differ significantly. The Tenth Basic Plan proposes that by 2030, the proportion of coal-fired power generation will be 21.2%, which is 0.6 percentage points lower than the 2030 target of 21.8% of national power generation. The Basic Plan sets the proportion of LNG power generation in 2030 at 20.9%, 1.4 percentage points higher than the 2030 NDC target (19.5%). Officials say peak electricity demand is expected to reach 117.3 GW in 2036.

The committee that drew up the base plan forecasted electricity demand to grow at an average annual rate of 1.4% from this year to 2036. Therefore, the target facility capacity in 2036 is 143.1GW, which is a reserve ratio of 22% beyond the peak power demand (1173 gw), and the confirmed facility capacity is set at 142GW, which reflects 12 nuclear power plants (total capacity of 10.5GW) and the continued operation of 6 new nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 8.4GW.

The Tenth Basic Plan reflects the existing plan to phase out 26 coal-fired power plants (13.7 GW) by 2036 and convert them to lng plants. 5 new LNG power plants will secure 4.3GW.

The committee believes that by implementing the 10th Basic Plan, Korea will be able to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets in the 2030 NDC plan. South Korea's 2030 greenhouse gas emission target in the 2030 NDC plan is 149.9 million tons.This is a 44.4% reduction in South Korea's greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 (269.6 million tons).