Liu Zhenya holds talks with South Korean counterparts to promote Northeast Asia Power Interconnection

On September 5 and 6 local time, Liu Zhenya, Chairman of Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) held talks with Javier Manzanares, Deputy Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, Dr. Dong-Sung Cho, President of Incheon National University, Sung-Arm Kim, Executive Vice President of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), in Seoul, South Korea. They exchanged views on jointly promoting Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) and accelerating the Northeast Asia Power Interconnection, and reached a consensus for cooperation.   

Liu Zhenya said that human society is facing a series of challenges such as global resource scarcity, environmental pollution, climate change, and health and poverty issues. The core of sustainable development is clean development. The establishment of GEI will help build a modern energy system that facilitates clean energy production, wide area allocation and electricity-based energy consumption and realizes “Two Replacements, One Increase, One Restore and One Conversion”. Essentially, GEI is a combination of “smart grid + UHV grid + clean energy”. In addition to resources endowment, it is politically, economically and technologically feasible and mature to establish the GEI.

Liu Zhenya said it is necessary to accelerate Northeast Asia Power Interconnection, given that fossil energy accounts for as high as 90% of the energy consumption in Northeast Asia. This region heavily depends on import of energy, and China, Japan and South Korea account for 34% of the global carbon dioxide emission. GEIDCO issued the Northeast Asia Power Interconnection Planning Research Report last year and completed the pre-feasibility report of China-South Korea Power Interconnection. He said GEIDCO was willing to deepen cooperation with all stakeholders, accelerate implementation of China-South Korea Power Interconnection and promote Northeast Asia power interconnection and regional integrated development.  

Javier Manzanares said Green Climate Fund is an operating entity of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and dedicated to promoting investment and cooperation of countries in climate and energy fields to cope with the climate change. The establishment of GEI is of profound significance for promoting green and low-carbon development. Green Climate Fund’s goals are highly compatible with GEIDCO's. He said he is expecting the two sides to carry out more in-depth cooperation.   

Dr. Dong-Sung Cho said Incheon National University has attached great importance to innovation in the electric power field and actively explored multidisciplinary research and education innovation. As a member of GEIDCO, the university is expect to cooperate intensively on major research of GEI and play an active role in the University Alliance of GEI.

Mr. Kim said KEPCO is striving to promote the development and utilization of clean energy and ensure that South Korea has safer and more stable power supply. In order to achieve this goal, KEPCO actively supports and promotes the development of Northeast Asia Power Interconnection, and hopes to maintain close cooperation with GEIDCO and State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) to further accelerate work related to China-South Korea power interconnection and project implementation..

Northeast Asia boasts abundant clean energy resources, highly complementary energy supply and demand, and a good foundation of cooperation among countries in this region. According to planning of the GEIDCO, the priority is to develop clean energy in Far East of Russia, Northeast China and North China, and Mongolia, establish a cross-border interconnection network of "Three Rings and One Horizontal Backbone Grids", namely Bohai-Sea/North Yellow Sea Ring, Japan Sea Ring, the Amur River/Heilongjiang River Ring, and the one horizontal line connecting south Mongolia to north China. GEIDCO, SGCC and KEPCO have jointly conducted the pre-feasibility study of China-South Korea Power Interconnection and will launch the feasibility study soon.