Hyosung Corporation, one of Korea’s conglomerates, is charging full steam ahead with its ESS (Energy Storage System) business, which is emerging as a solution to power shortages that have recently resulted in a series of power blackouts. On September, 13, Hyosung announced that it will supply a 250 kilowatts /500 kilowatts ESS to Guri Agricultural & Marine Products Wholesale Market Management Corporation (GAMACO) by the end of 2012.
The ESS, a kind of “large-scale battery system,” stores electricity at low-demand hours (such as late night hours) when the power rate is relatively lower in order to use the stored electricity during peak hours when electricity comes at higher rates. Therefore, the ESS will ensure sustainable power supply since it unleashes stored, lower-priced electricity during high-demand hours. The ESS is comprised of PCS (Power Conditioning System), EMS (Energy Management System), secondary batteries, and BMS (Battery Management System).
The ESS supplied to GAMACO is slated to be used as power ancillary equipment for GAMACO’s 1,000 affiliates.
Recently, there have been growing calls for the introduction of the ESS as climate anomalies and Korea’s continuing industrial sophistication have jacked up demands for electricity to a point where the nation suffers from power supply disruptions. The global ESS market, which amounts to US$1.4 billion (or KRW 1.6 trillion) as of 2012, is anticipated to pick up more than 36% a year to reach US$15.6 billion (or KRW 17.8 trillion) in 2020. Market analysts forecast that efforts led by the Korean government will lead to supplying the Korean market with 200 megawatts (worth KRW 320 billion) in ESS by 2016.
The recent provision of the ESS to GAMACO also came as part of the smart grid promotion project run by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
Once the ESS is introduced, peak-hour power demand, particularly during hot summer and cold winner days, will be eased, thereby preventing power outages. In addition, the resultant drop in the load of power stations will help save money that would otherwise have been ploughed into facility construction. Besides, the ESS stores electricity when it is relatively cheaper, so customers can buy peak-hour electricity at off-peak power prices. Above all, the ESS is in the limelight as it guarantees uninterrupted power supply especially when the output of renewable power generation systems (e.g. wind and photovoltaic power) sharply fluctuates in tandem with weather conditions.
An official from Hyosung Corporation said, “Leveraging its knowhow on power supply accumulated over the past four decades, Hyosung has pressed ahead with smart grid projects such as STATCOMs (Static Synchronous Compensator) and electric vehicle (EV) charging systems. From now on, Hyosung will double its efforts to entrench itself as Korea’s leader in the smart grid sector, which is deemed as one of Korea’s new growth engines.”
In 2010, Hyosung became the first Korean company that successfully developed a STATCOM (a shunt device of the Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) family), which is designed to compensate for any voltage outputs lost during power transmission so as to improve transient stability on electrical power networks.
Meanwhile, Hyosung has recently participated in the EV sharing pilot project organized by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and supplied a total of 26 EV charging system units to the Seoul metropolitan areas.
