Resolution urging power grid improvements submitted to national assembly speakers' council
Park Gil-seon, speaker of the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Provincial Council, urged the government to act, warning that many of the "sunshine income village" projects it is spearheading are unlikely to be realized in the near term — falling short of the rural income growth they promise.
Park, a member of the People Power Party, which holds the majority in the Gangwon Provincial Council, will submit a resolution at the sixth extraordinary session of the National Council of Metropolitan and Provincial Assembly Speakers on Sept. 29, calling on the government to improve the power grid to ensure the stable rollout of the sunshine income village program.
The sunshine income village program lets village residents operate solar power generation projects themselves, using the proceeds to fund community welfare and shared local initiatives. The Ministry of Interior and Safety has been expanding the program nationwide this year, running a third round of applications from Thursday after completing the first and second rounds.
Interest from rural communities has been strong — 129 villages applied in the first round and 617 in the second.
In Gangwon Province, 49 villages applied across the first two rounds, and four were selected in the first round, with 403 residents expected to benefit.
Of those four selected villages, however, only two were cleared for immediate implementation. The other two received conditional approval, contingent on receiving subsidies for energy storage systems due to insufficient transmission line capacity.
Gangwon Province has identified 2,318 villages across its 15 cities and counties as candidates for the program this year, but estimates that 80 percent lie in areas where grid connection is not currently feasible — meaning power generated there could not be transmitted even if generation facilities were installed.
"This is a program of real significance, but the power grid needed to support it is not sufficiently prepared," Park said. "Situations are arising where electricity is generated but cannot be sold, or where it is impossible to predict when a project can even begin. The government must prioritize grid expansion in underserved areas when drawing up the 12th Long-Term Transmission and Substation Facilities Plan."
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