World's Best Power Quality... 820,000 Households Affected by Blackouts Over 5 Years

Annual Increase in Households Affected by Power Outages
50,000 Households in 2017... 200,000 Households This Year

Seoul's Gangnam area shows a contrast between Guryong Village and the dazzling high-rise apartments. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

In the past five years, approximately 820,000 apartment households have experienced power outages. The number of affected households increased from 53,364 in 2017 to over 200,000 this year. There are calls for measures such as expanding the replacement of aging private transformer facilities.

According to data submitted by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to Lee Gyu-min, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of nationwide apartment power outage incidents from 2017 to 2021 totaled 312 cases. During this period, the number of affected households reached 824,255.

The number of nationwide power outage incidents was 68 in 2017, 232 in 2018, 205 in 2019, 271 in 2020, and 312 as of August 2021. This year, the number of incidents has already increased more than fourfold compared to 2017.

The number of households affected by power outages was 53,364 in 2017, 202,234 in 2018, 168,015 in 2019, 181,785 in 2020, and 218,857 in 2021.

By region, Seoul had 361 cases, Gyeonggi 284 cases, Busan 87 cases, and Incheon 73 cases. In contrast, Jeju had only 5 cases, and Sejong had 2 cases.

The main cause of power outages was equipment failure, accounting for 553 cases (50.8%), more than half of the total. Other causes included circuit breaker operation with 327 cases (30.0%), flooding with 77 cases (7.0%), and foreign object contact with 64 cases (5.8%).

As equipment failure in substations within apartments is analyzed as a major cause of power outages, there is an analysis that improvement projects for aging private sector facilities are necessary. Although KEPCO supplies world-class high-quality electricity, the number of power outage incidents and the scale of damage in private apartments have been increasing every year.

Assemblyman Lee Gyu-min said, "The number of apartment power outage incidents shows an increasing trend year by year, and the scale of damage is considerable," adding, "KEPCO should activate projects such as replacing aging private transformer facilities to ensure stable power supply and strive to provide high-quality electricity continuously and smoothly without interruption."