As a result of the audit, it was confirmed that the 20 billion won solar power project, which was first conducted by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, was carried out in a fistful manner. The actual operation time fell by more than 15% compared to the initial project review, and the investigation revealed that a shadow was cast on the panel. KHNP has already been aware of this fact and has left it unattended for more than two years since it acquired the photovoltaic power plant. Regarding this, experts pointed out, “It is the result of excessive speeding with ideology intervening in energy policy,” not economics.
According to KHNP on the 6th, it confirmed the audit report on the’appropriateness of economic evaluation related to the acquisition of Boseong River’s solar power plant’ and requested disposition of the person in charge, including warning measures. In accordance with the government’s policy to expand new and renewable energy, KHNP bought the Boseonggang solar power plant operated by a private company in October 2018 and started operating it in the form of a business acquisition. This was because of the demand to lower the share of nuclear power plants and increase the share of new and renewable energy such as solar power according to the nuclear power plant policy.
However, when opening the lid of the first renewable energy generation, the power generation performance fell significantly, contrary to the original forecast. The actual power generation time in 2019 was 3.32 hours, which was more than 30 minutes shorter than the average power generation time of 3.84 hours per day predicted in 2018 at the time of the acquisition. For solar power, the average power generation time per day is the most important in valuation. For this reason, at last year’s national audit, Rep. Yoon Young-seok asked for an investigation and pointed out that KHNP’s evaluation of the economic feasibility of the Boseong River photovoltaic power plant was false.
Han Suwon conducted its own audit and began to determine the cause. As a result of the audit, it was confirmed that the lower part of the solar panel on the actual site was the shaded area. A bigger problem is the fact that even though such problems were identified at the beginning of the acquisition, they were left unattended until recently. The person in charge of KHNP’s audit pointed out that “the transfer of the takeover was not properly prepared in the process of changing the person in charge.” Experts point out that the acquisition price also jumped due to the overestimated uptime. KHNP purchased two 1 MW Boseong-gang solar power plants for 1.94 billion won each, and two 3MWh energy storage devices (ESS) were also purchased at 1.77 billion won. The cost of facility investment alone is 7.4 billion won. In addition, KHNP took over a private solar power plant that had already been operated, and took a method of renting a power plant site for 25 years without buying it. KHNP annually pays 30 million won for land lease and 46.4 million won for operation and maintenance. If we add the depreciation and depreciation of facilities that must be removed after the lease ends, the fixed cost alone reaches 500 million won each year. In comparison, it is known that the profit was only 6852 million won. KHNP’s side explained, “We reflected the fixed cost items at the time of the economic evaluation and actually generated net profits of more than 200 million won per year.”
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the use of Chinese-made modules, which was suspicious at last year’s national audit, was also true. KHNP’s side explained, “It is true that private companies have used Chinese-made modules prior to the acquisition of KHNP, but KHNP’s other solar power projects have not used Chinese-made power.” Experts judged it as a tragedy of KHNP, which occurred when the major could not be saved even with advanced nuclear power plant technology. Professor Onggi-woon of Soongsil University said, “It is nationally desirable for KHNP to devote its fullest power to the development and distribution of small nuclear reactors.”
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