Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Plant located in Daesan-eup, Seosan-si, Chung cheongnam-do, South Korea, which produces 40MWh of electricity annually using by-product hydrogen from nearby Hanwha Total Petrochemical.
On the 12th of March, the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy announced the enactment of a public notice on the calculation of the annual purchase volume from the hydrogen power generation bidding market in Korea. The administrative notice will be effective from the 13th of March until the 3rd of the following month.
“The Ministry of Industry plans to hold two(2) bidding rounds for general hydrogen power generation in 2025 – one in the first half and one in the second half of the year.
Between 2025 and 2027, the total amount of general hydrogen power generation available in South Korea will be 1.3 terawatt hours per year.
The Ministry of Industry of South Korea plans to gradually reduce the general hydrogen power generation market in consideration of the trend towards distributed energy and the potential for supplying clean hydrogen in the future. Instead, they plan to open a clean hydrogen bidding market with little or no greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 and expand it gradually.
In the hydrogen power generation bidding market, successful bids for hydrogen power generation enter into mid- to long-term contracts of 10 to 20 years. KEPCO and district electric operators plan to purchase hydrogen power generation that wins bids from 2025 onwards. KEPCO has decided to purchase all of the first hydrogen power generation (1.3TWh), which accounts for 0.23% of last year’s total electricity transaction volume (550TWh).
By 2030, the Ministry of Industry expects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 8.3 million tons through the clean hydrogen power generation market and distribute 8.0 TWh of power through the general hydrogen power generation market.
The government expects fierce competition in the bidding as many industries have shown interest in hydrogen power generation. Currently, there are about 20 private power companies in Korea, including Samchully, SK E&S, GS Power, POSCO Energy, and Hanwha Energy.
