[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Jeong Seung-il, the newly appointed president of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), stated on the 1st, "We must seriously consider proactive technological innovation across all energy sectors, including electricity, and bold transitions in the energy system."
In his inaugural speech, President Jeong said, "Carbon neutrality is now an irreversible trend."
He identified key priorities as ▲ harmonizing public interest and corporate performance ▲ value management and profitability enhancement ▲ responding to energy transition and digital transformation ▲ customer satisfaction and social contribution ▲ fostering a collaborative ecosystem ▲ pioneering overseas new businesses and discovering new growth engines.
First, he emphasized that KEPCO must become faster and more agile to take bold challenges in finding innovative and creative solutions to reduce carbon emissions. President Jeong pointed out, "It is necessary to pay attention to the 'decarbonization' trend across the entire power industry, from electricity production and consumption to transmission and distribution," adding, "One axis of decarbonization is the bold transition of the energy mix and power generation mix, and the other axis is the battle for efficiency."
Until now, the energy mix, which maximizes the efficiency of energy supply by appropriately blending energy sources, has mainly been considered in terms of acceptability, safety, and economic feasibility. Now, all possible alternatives must also be examined from the perspective of carbon emissions. President Kim said, "We must expedite the construction of an optimized transmission and distribution system to support large-scale offshore wind power and rapidly expanding renewable energy, and also improve the efficiency of the entire electricity production, transportation, and consumption lifecycle," adding, "In particular, improving efficiency will minimize investment in power generation and transmission and distribution facilities, and for KEPCO, it will be an opportunity to secure high-tech leading competitiveness, including system design, manufacturing, and operational know-how." He plans to establish incentives for decentralized power production and transmission and distribution usage tariffs, as well as promote power market reform and the introduction of virtual power plants.
He also plans to actively introduce various electricity tariff systems. President Jeong said, "While accelerating the digital transformation efforts so far, we need to broaden our scope of consideration to include the development of new services linked with smart factories, smart industrial complexes, and smart cities based on artificial intelligence and big data," adding, "The spread of smart meters will also necessitate the introduction of various tariff systems."
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