Hanam City obstructs 280km power grid project

Hanam City obstructs 280km power grid project

최초입력 2025.05.26 13:59:11

Concerns are mounting in South Korea that national efforts to build a transmission line from the east coast to the Seoul metropolitan area could go down the drain as the city of Hanam in Gyeonggi Province is refusing to cooperate by using its authority to license the expansion of a Dongseoul Substation as leverage.
Without a substation to receive the electricity, the 280-kilometer-long transmission line and power generation facilities on the east coast that produce cheap electricity would become useless.
The Dongseoul Substation is a core infrastructure facility for the stable supply of electricity to the capital region. It is the final destination of Korea’s longest and largest high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system - stretching 280 kilometers from Uljin on the east coast to Hanam, with 436 transmission towers.
The inexpensive electricity generated on the east coast is to be transmitted through this network and delivered to the Seoul area after voltage conversion at the Dongseoul Substation. All other transmission facilities along the route have secured local consent, with the Dongseoul Substation remaining the only unresolved segment, held up by what many are calling Hanam City’s obstinate resistance.
Hanam City had initially agreed in an October 2023 memorandum of understanding with the country’s state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) to swiftly process permits for new transmission lines and indoor construction work.
However, the city unilaterally rejected all KEPCO’s permit applications and informed the utility that it was terminating the agreement in August 2024. KEPCO subsequently filed an administrative appeal to overturn Hanam’s refusal, and the Gyeonggi-do Administrative Appeals Commission ruled in its favor in December 2024.
Nevertheless, Hanam City has continued to delay the related approvals, and KEPCO estimates that the delay in expanding the substation could cost the country around 300 billion won ($219.37 million) annually due to generation restrictions.
The state-run utility also sees Hanam’s demand to build an “art center” in exchange for granting permits as an unacceptable proposal.
The construction cost alone is estimated at around 40 billion won, which would be a significant burden for KEPCO given that the utility is struggling under a cumulative deficit of 43 trillion won and incurred 1.15 trillion won in interest expenses in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
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Hanam City obstructs 280km power grid project

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