Revaluing K-water's hydro power from the perspective of carbon neutrality and RE100

Abstract

Responding to the climate crisis, which has come sooner than expected, is a common task that the world should prioritize. In order to cope with climate change, countries around the world are embodying carbon reduction goals and implementation measures to achieve them. Energy transition (from fossil fuels to renewable energy) is the key to reducing greenhouse gases, and in Korea, many efforts are being made to expand the introduction of new and renewable energy to respond to the climate crisis and achieve sustainable development. In addition, RE100 Initiatives are in the spotlight around the world. RE100, abbreviated as 100% renewable energy, is a voluntary campaign to declare that companies will convert their electricity to 100% eco-friendly renewable energy by at least 2050, and it is being expanded and demanded by global companies. In this trend, domestic power generation facilities are also increasing every year, and the increase in new and renewable energy is prominent. Due to the nature of volatile renewable energy such as solar power, output volatility and predictive uncertainty problems are accompanied by external environmental changes such as weather. For this reason, an appropriate level of flexibility power generation source is required. The increase in renewable energy is a trend of the times to respond to climate change, and the value of hydro power, a representative flexible resource and renewable energy, was analyzed in this study. Hydro power contributes to the stability of the power system by enabling rapid startup suspension and power generation output adjustment, and the contribution was quantified in this study. In addition, environmental values such as the contribution of the power market and greenhouse gas reduction were quantified based on past performance. I expect that the value of hydro power will be properly assessed for the increase of renewable energy and the stable operation of the power system.