Despite the planned resumption of construction for 52 high-voltage transmission cable towers in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, next week, Korea is highly likely to again face power shortages this summer and winter, according to industry watchers.

The construction, which is essential to transmit and distribute power generated from the newly-built unit 3 of the Shin Gori nuclear power plant to the North Gyeongsang Province region, has been suspended since January this year when a farmer in his 70s from Miryang burned himself to death to protest the construction. The nation’s 24th reactor was supposed to start commercial operations by the end of the year.

“With an early start of summer in mid-May, the top priority of the government’s energy policy is shifting to measures to prevent a possible blackout during peak times in advance. For this, it is critical to start commercial operations of the 1.4-million-kilowatt-class reactor in Uljin,” said Kim Jun-dong, deputy minister of energy and resources policy under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Industry watchers, however, predicted that the construction in Miryang would be completed in January next year at best as it is expected to take about eight months.

For the past five months, officials from the ministry and the Korea Electric Power Corp. repeatedly held meetings with residents in Miryang to persuade them to accept the cable towers in their city, but many still oppose the construction, regardless of the proposed economic incentives, demanding the power cables be buried underground. KEPCO rejected the proposal on technological grounds.

The unreliable operation of nuclear power plants has come to have a major impact on the nation’s power supply as 23 nuclear reactors nationwide generate one-third of the nation’s power. So far, eight reactors are temporarily offline for regular check-ups or review to have their life span extended.

By Seo Jee-yeon  (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)