Korea Energy Management Corporation recently held ‘RPS agreement ceremony’ attended by public corporations such as the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., Korea Electric Power Corporation and Korea Power Exchange, and supply certification institutions (Korea Energy Management Corporation Renewable Energy Center), obliged suppliers and related institutions. 

This agreement ceremony served as the place to announce the expansion of renewable energy supply, to promote the related industry through RPS system at home and abroad and to make full preparation for the implementation of the regulation through cooperation among the government and related institutions for successful settlement of the system. And the event shared a report about the progress of RPS system implementation by certification institutions, and presented business agreement between the government and related institutions and demonstration of the RPS integrated operation system.

In the agreement ceremony, the government, public institutions, supply certification institutions, obliged suppliers and related institutions concluded a business agreement for successful implementation of RPS system about the points in the following.

-The government shall do its best in all administrative and financial support for successful settlement of RPS system.

-The supply certification institutions shall do their best in support of the system operation without problems and the enhancement of implementation rate by obliged suppliers.

-Obliged suppliers shall sincerely make endeavors to achieve RPS obligatory supply target and shall do their best in implementing ‘Green Power Project’ which installs renewable energy power generation equipment in all business places of their companies by the year 2013.

-The Korea Electric Power Corporation shall make endeavors to cover RPS implementation cost by reflecting it in electricity bills and actively cooperate for providing data related to implementing the RPS system like electricity transaction record.

-Korea Power Exchange shall actively cooperate for providing data related to implementing the RPS system like electricity transaction record.

Director of Korea Energy Management Corporation Renewable Energy Center, Kim Hyung-jin, explained, through progress report on the day, the present condition of the establishment of the foundation for implementation of RPS such as introducton of RPS operation regulations after the Renewable Energy Center was designated and announced as supply certification institution at the end of last year and pledged to sincerely implement the role as the general managing institution doing jobs such as finishing the establishment of RPS integrated operation center and integrated operation system.

In addition, Director of the Energy Resources Center of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Jeong Jae-hoon, encouraged the hard work of the people in charge in the Korea Energy Management Corporation and related institutions who have striven to prepare the institutional foundation for preparation for implementation of RPS system and emphasized saying, “The government will actively support continuous communication with power generators for expansion of renewable energy supply.” He requested for “the effort to contribute to the enhancement of the country’s energy independence level and the promotion of related industries through active and drastic investment for achievement of RPS implementation objective.”

Meanwhile, the RPS mechanism generally places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified fraction of their electricity from renewable energy sources. In Korea,  the obliged suppliers include the 13 electricity generation companies such as 6 electricity generation affiliated companies with facilities scale (except for renewable energy facilities) of 500 MW or more, the Korea District Heating Corporation, the Korea Water Resources Corporation, Posco Power, SK-E&S, GS EPS, GS Power and MPC Yulchon Electric Power.

These obliged suppliers should produce, as the obligation, 2% of their power generation from renewable energy sources from this year and they should increase the rate gradually to 10% by 2022.

In case they cannot fulfill the obligation, penalty would be imposed in consideration of the reason for not implementing and the number of times of not implementing, within 150% of the average transaction price defined in the supply certificates.

For solar PV, a special quantity of 1,200 MW has been allocated for the first 5 years (2012~2016).