Chungcheong leaders unite behind bid to bring integrated power company HQ to South Chungcheong Province

The leaders of four Chungcheong region municipalities have united behind a shared call to locate the headquarters of a planned integrated state power company in South Chungcheong Province, declaring it "by far the most suitable site."

South Chungcheong Province Governor Park Soo-hyun, Daejeon Mayor Heo Tae-jeong, Sejong Mayor Jo Sang-ho and North Chungcheong Province Governor Shin Yong-han convened the inaugural Chungcheong Metropolitan Union Council on Thursday at Independence Hall in Cheonan, where they adopted a joint statement calling for the integrated headquarters to be established in South Chungcheong Province.

In the statement, the four leaders said South Korea faces the urgent challenge of responding to the climate crisis and transitioning to a carbon-free power system. They said the government has announced plans to merge five state power companies into a single entity tentatively named Korea Power, and described the consolidation as "a core pillar of national energy policy that answers the demands of the times." The choice of location, they added, "goes beyond a simple relocation of a public institution — it is a critical decision that will determine the success or failure of future energy security and balanced national development."

The leaders said the headquarters site "must serve as a hub capable of supplying stable electricity to the high-tech industrial belt connecting the Chungcheong region and Greater Seoul, and must be a place that can overcome the job losses and economic contraction caused by the closure of power plants." South Chungcheong Province, they said, "is by far that optimal location."

The four leaders declared that establishing the integrated headquarters in South Chungcheong Province "is a national task that must be carried out without delay, reflecting the aspirations of 5.6 million people in the Chungcheong region."

They jointly affirmed that locating the headquarters in South Chungcheong Province would serve as a starting point for simultaneously advancing national energy policy and achieving balanced national development. They also described it as an essential condition for realizing a "just transition" and the surest path to successfully building a state-led renewable energy ecosystem.

The leaders strongly urged the government and the National Assembly to "promptly confirm the establishment of the integrated headquarters in South Chungcheong Province in keeping with the legislative intent of supporting regions affected by coal power plant closures." They pledged to use the headquarters as a catalyst to strengthen inter-regional energy cooperation across the Chungcheong area and lead South Korea's energy transition.

South Chungcheong Province has been mounting an all-out campaign to secure the headquarters. Since July, Park has met in succession with the chair of the National Assembly's climate, energy, environment and labor committee, negotiators from both parties on the committee, the minister of the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy, and the ruling and opposition party leaders to press the case for South Chungcheong Province, while also urging the government to act through the Central-Local Cooperation Council and a meeting with the prime minister.