Jeju to boost distributed energy infrastructure

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy and the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province will invigorate distributed energy, and hasten the establishment of related infrastructure and the cultivation of new industries in Jeju.

The province intends to build a large-scale energy storage system as well as promote sector coupling technologies such as green hydrogen and thermal energy utilization under the basic plan.

Sector coupling is the process of storing and utilizing renewable energy power by converting it to other forms of energy. The goal is to ensure efficient distribution and use of renewable energy, which is inherently intermittent and insecure.

In addition, the province intends to investigate the virtual power plant (VPP) and Plus-demand response (DR) dissemination models to foster new distributed energy-based electric power sectors.

VPP is a system that connects numerous distributed energy sources and operates them as if they were a single power plant using information and communication technology.

The province also intends to build a microgrid to help small communities attain power self-sufficiency.