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12 March 2007 - South Korea's first remote-controlled pumped storage power plant has been completed after more than six years of construction, the Seoul government has said.
The two 30 000 kW generators built at the new Cheongsong plant in North Gyeongsang Province were built at the cost of 592bn won (US$624.4m). The state-run Korea Western Power Co. (WP), the facility's operator, said the plant's combined 60 000 kW output makes Cheongsong one of the largest remote-controlled pumped storage electric power plants in the world.
The plant can be run with fewer than 20 staff, since all operational control will be made from the Samrangjin Pumped Storage Power Plant located more 130 km southwest of Cheongsong.
The affiliate of KEPCO, South Korea's power monopoly, said the new facility would raise the country's percentage of electricity generated by hydropower to 8.4 per cent from 7.5 per cent. At present, coal-fired thermal power facilities and nuclear plants account for the bulk of South Korea's electricity supply.
Pumped storage plants make use of excess electricity during off-peak hours to pump water up to elevated reservoirs. The stored water is then released through conduits that spin power-generating turbines during peak periods during the day.
Meanwhile, a government report has shown that South Korea's energy consumption rose marginally in 2006 as high prices affected both private and industrial demand.
Total energy consumption moved up 1.7 per cent year-on-year to 232.4m tons of oil equivalent (TOE). This is a drop from the 3.8 per cent annual gain tallied for 2005, and the lowest reached since the country was hit by the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98.
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