Geochang-gun and Korea South-East Power Sign Agreement to Attract Pumped Storage Power Project

Project Budget of 1.5 Trillion KRW, Approximately 70.4 Billion KRW Support for Resident Income, Welfare, and Surrounding Area Projects

Geochang-gun, Gyeongnam Province, signed a business agreement with Korea Southern Power to attract a pumped-storage power generation project.

The agreement, made on the 7th, aims for both organizations to mutually cooperate to ensure that Geochang-gun's pumped-storage power project is reflected in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's 11th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand in 2025, creating greater synergy effects and establishing a sustainable cooperative relationship.

Since September last year, Geochang-gun and Korea Southern Power have held eight resident briefing sessions and one advanced site visit to attract the pumped-storage power plant. They have also conducted individual interviews with landowners and households expected to be submerged, providing thorough guidance on the necessity of the project, support details, and residents' questions, focusing on securing resident acceptance.

Group photo of Geochang-gun and Korea Southern Power signing an agreement to attract pumped storage power generation projects.

At the project briefing session, it was announced that the pumped-storage power plant to be promoted will be located in the areas of Uhyeri and Yongsan-ri, Gabuk-myeon, Geochang-gun, with a project cost of 1.5 trillion KRW and a capacity of 600 MW. The plan is to complete the project after a five-year preparation period and an eight-year construction period following the selection of the operator.

The attraction of the pumped-storage power plant is expected to bring various economic benefits. Direct economic effects include approximately 22.5 billion KRW in special support project funds and about 47.9 billion KRW in basic and operator support project funds, which will be used for increasing residents' income and welfare enhancement projects.

Additionally, indirect effects are expected such as increased local tax revenue, income growth due to population inflow and job creation, development of new tourist attractions, expansion of regional development infrastructure, flood mitigation, and emergency wildfire suppression.

Pumped-storage power generation is a technology that efficiently stores and supplies electricity by pumping water to a higher elevation during periods of low electricity demand and releasing it to generate electricity when demand surges. This system helps stabilize electricity supply and demand and plays an important role in compensating for the intermittency of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.

Korea Southern Power is a domestic power generation public enterprise operating various power plants, including the Hadong Thermal Power Plant in Gyeongnam and the Shin-Incheon LNG Power Plant. The company is responsible for about 8.7% of the country's power generation, producing 51,919 GWh. Through this agreement, the company expressed its commitment to establishing backup facilities to cope with output variability due to the expansion of renewable energy and to leading community contributions.

Governor Gu In-mo stated, “Through this agreement with Korea Southern Power, we will do our best to ensure that the Geochang-gun pumped-storage power plant project is definitely included in the 11th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand.” He added, “We will especially actively support attraction activities together with local residents.”