Ulsan 4 Combined Cycle Power Plant, Ulsan Metropolitan City, South Korea

摘要

Combined cycle plants have the advantages of being extremely efficient and can be built in two phases when power needs peak unexpectedly. Ulsan 4 was built in response to the country's 2011 power crisis for both reasons. The first task was installation of the combustion turbines in time to meet the 2013 summer peak demand. The steam plant portion of the project was completed a year later. The Republic of Korea's (South Korea's) electricity consumption has grown an average of 5% annually over the past decade, and the nation remains the world's ninth-largest energy consumer (based on 2011 data). South Korea also imports about 97% of the fuel used to produce its electricity because of a lack of indigenous fuel sources. Economic growth is largely determined by exports, which again are driven by a reliable supply of electricity. South Korea's GDP is expected to grow 3.8% in 2014 as exports continue to rise. The country's energy needs heavily rely on nuclear, coal, and gas-fired generation. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, nearly doubling over the past decade, fuel the tremendous growth in high-efficiency combined cycle plants. South Korea's four nuclear power stations (with 23 individual reactors) provide up to about 30% of the country's electricity and were slated to provide about half of the country's capacity by 2024, according to its Fifth Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply and Demand, finalized in late 2010. However, South Korea's nuclear industry experienced a dramatic slowdown in its expansion plans after Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011, followed by revelation of falsified nuclear construction certificates for parts used in 20 operating reactors in 2012. The government's latest long-term electricity plan (released at the end of 2013) adjusted its goal for the nuclear share of South Korea's generation down to 29% by 2035.