Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick urged the state-run power supplier KEPCO and other energy-related organizations to stay on top alert as the nation’s electricity supply is to face an unprecedented challenge early this week.

“The electricity supply over the next three days will be a tough challenge,” Yoon said during the emergency meeting held in the KEPCO headquarters situation room on Sunday.

The meeting was scheduled to take place at the Korea Power Exchange later in the afternoon but was moved forward, reflecting the sense of crisis over the escalating heat wave and the resulting power demand surge.

The electricity demand from Monday to Wednesday is expected to exceed 80 million kilowatts per day, which is some 3 million kilowatts higher than last year’s record, according to the ministry.

“This means that the backup power level will be 1.8 million kilowatts maximum, even if we mobilized all available power sources,” the minister said.

“Just a single power generator breakdown may lead to a nationwide blackout, just like the one that took place in September 2011.”

In fact, concerns elevated over the weekend as a 100,000-kilowatt thermal power generator in Ilsan was temporarily suspended late on Saturday, though it was put back into operation on Sunday, according to officials.

The minister also stressed that an extreme power saving campaign is the only way to survive the crisis.

“We are squeezing out every last bit of electricity but the key point is to cut down the electricity demand to the extreme level, as regular measures are no longer sufficient,” he said.

He pledged to issue a nationwide alert through television, internet and mobile messages, should an electricity supply crisis occur. Also, a civil defense drill siren will go off in case the backup power falls below the 2 million kilowatts level and an “alert” warning is issued, he added.

Some 400 energy-consuming companies may even be asked to temporarily shut down some of their manufacturing lines, while public firms will face a compulsory electricity disconnection, he also said.

These desperate countermeasures, however, also led to public criticism that the government is shifting its responsibility onto local industries and the general public.

The government had established a set of energy supply measures back in May, after several of the local nuclear reactors were suspended due to faulty parts and corrupt transactions.

But the plans were largely limited to basic energy-saving campaigns, failing to suggest long-term countermeasures on the government level.

Minister Yoon also pledged to increase the electricity fees around October, in an aim to reduce the general power consumption, but the idea triggered the backlash from local industries.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)