South Korea to shut oldest coal-fired power plant on December 31 and replace it with facility using LNG
South Korea said the nation’s oldest coal-powered electricity generating plant would be shut down for good on December 31 in line with the government's plan to shift towards cleaner energy.
The Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy confirmed that the Honam Coal Power Plant located in Yeosu in South Jeolla province, 450 kilometres south of the capital Seoul, was scheduled to stop operations at the end of December.
“The plant has been in operation as a power producer since 1973,” added the Ministry.
The nation's nine other coal-based plants have all been retired since 2017 as their operational life cycles have expired.
“A new gas-fired generating facility using regasified LNG will be built at the Yeosu site,” said the Ministry.
The Hanyang Corporation has been grated permits to convert the city of Yeosu into a hub for LNG.
The approved project will include construction of LNG storage tanks, a jetty and other regasification infrastructure as well as truck-loading bays by 2024.
South Korea is the world’s third-largest LNG importer with access to global supplies.
The country's annual demand for LNG is expected to reach about 48 million tonnes in 2034 compared with 41.7MT estimated for 2021.
South Korea's imports of LNG in 2020 amounted to 40.81MT versus fourth-placed India’s 26.62MT.
The nation’s six large operational import terminals are at Boryyeong, Incheon, Kwangyang, Pyeong-Taek, Samcheok and Tong-Yeong.
The biggest supplier to South Korea is Qatar with just short of 10MT of cargoes and followed by Australia with 8.10MT.
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