Rally in front of the Government Complex Sejong to urge system improvement
“It’s on the verge of bankruptcy with certification, but only certain companies benefit”
[이투뉴스] Solar power companies protested demanding to resolve the unfairness problem in the RPS market. They called for fundamental measures, saying, “The right to live is being threatened by the government’s insufficient measures.”
About 100 members of the Korea Solar Power Generation Business Association held a rally in front of the Government Complex Sejong on the 14th, demanding the improvement of the competitive bidding system and the preparation of remedies for business operators. At this meeting, the council said, “Through the first rally of last year, the government demanded measures against the unfairness of RPS fixed price competitive bidding and the price collapse of SMP and REC spot markets in the second half of last year. “We announced the basic energy plan.”
On this day, the council raised its voice to promptly apologize for the carbon certification system applied to power plants already completed in the second half of last year, and to come up with practical remedies. They also argued that “a certain company, which was going bankrupt because of its lack of competitiveness, is suddenly expanding the domestic market without any special efforts to normalize its management.” It can be interpreted as referring to companies that are beneficiaries of the carbon certification system.
Businesses said, “The introduction of the carbon certification system has reached the point of bankruptcy, but only certain companies are benefiting.”
It also called for major improvements to the RPS policy. The council disclosed the evaluation details of RPS fixed price competitive bidding in the second half of last year, and urged to improve the competitive bidding system so that fair and transparent bidding can be achieved. The RPS Steering Committee, which was in charge of the evaluation of competitive bidding, was operated as a secret organization for over 10 years, and the list of members of the RPS Steering Committee reluctantly disclosed included four persons in charge of related companies who are concerned about a conflict of interest.
They said, “The RPS Steering Committee is exerting enormous influence on the new and renewable energy industry, such as determining the REC weighting and the RPS fixed price competitive bidding business evaluation,” and “Although he was the one who destroyed the already completed power plant by introducing the carbon certification system in the second half of last year, The activities were conducted completely privately,” he criticized.
At the same time, the council raised its voice that it should announce at least 5 years of competitive bidding volume for predictable market entry, and that at least 6GW of volume should be allocated this year. Until now, competitive bidding has only been able to check the amount of bidding when the bidding is announced, and the bidding capacity has also been a small number, far from the supply target set by the government itself, and the voluntary contract capacity of the KEPCO power generation subsidiary exceeds 60% of the competitive bidding capacity. He also pointed out that it was unfair.
They urged, “Prohibit private contracts with KEPCO power generation subsidiaries, and announce the capacity of competitive bidding for at least five years so that power generation companies can do predictable business.” In particular, he emphasized that it is necessary to give incentives to small and medium-sized photovoltaic operators, and to allocate separate quantities for power plants that were completed before the introduction of the carbon certification system, which was concentrated in the spot market just before bankruptcy, so that they can move from the spot market to the contract market in an orderly manner.
In addition, the council insisted on taking countermeasures, such as adjusting the Jeju power generation sales price to the same level as the land. Due to the regional characteristics of Jeju, power exchanges and transactions account for the majority, and accordingly, unlike land, the weighted average SMP is not applied, but is calculated by hourly SMP.
However, during the daytime when solar power generation occurs, the ratio of renewable energy generation is relatively high, so the hourly SMP also plummets, so there is no significant difference from land.
The council explained, “The difference between Jeju average SMP and land average SMP is subtracted from the selling price of REC in the spot market,” and explained, “Last year, Jeju REC actually recorded 0 won.”
Kwak Young-ju, chairman of the Korea Photovoltaic Power Generation Business Association, said, “After the meeting, we met with officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In the first half of the year, he said that he was reviewing measures for improvement,” he said. “We plan to hold a meeting at the Blue House and the Party building in the future until the requirements to protect the good nationwide solar power generators who believe and invest in the government policy are fulfilled.”
Reporter Jin Gyeong-nam [email protected]
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