The Effects of New Energy Policy on the Power System Reliability and Flexibility in South Korea

Abstract

The Korean government has recently decided to expand renewable energy technologies (RETs) while reducing the portion of nuclear and coal power plants. The large deployment of RETs could possibly hurt the power system reliability and flexibility. This study proposes a model for analyzing the effects of unreliable RETs on the reliability and flexibility. Numerical analysis provides findings as follows: (1) the basic plan for long-term electricity supply could fail to meet the target level of power system reliability and flexibility; (2) the relationship between the reliability and flexibility is analyzed; (3) additionally required power plants and changes in generation mix are investigated.