Korea to lift Honam grid restriction as part of 100GW renewables plan

South Korea's environment ministry said Tuesday it will lift a grid-management substation designation in the Honam region on Oct. 1, reopening renewable energy connections that have been blocked since September 2024 as part of a plan to accommodate more than 100 gigawatts of renewables by 2030.

The measure, reported at a Cabinet meeting, removes the bottleneck that had pushed new renewable projects in Honam back to 2034 or later because of transmission and distribution constraints. New applications will resume in January 2027 under a revised connection system, while operators already waiting for capacity can apply for early connection from Oct. 1.

"This plan is not about waiting until new power grids are built, but about using the grids we have as efficiently as possible," Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment Kim Sung-hwan said.

The plan aims to raise the grid's renewable hosting capacity to 171 gigawatts on the transmission side by 2030 from 119 gigawatts, and to 110 gigawatts on the distribution side from 84 gigawatts. Honam alone would see transmission capacity rise to 64 gigawatts from 37 gigawatts, and distribution capacity to 30 gigawatts from 18 gigawatts.

Much of the gain comes from new connection rules rather than new wires. Solar connections on distribution lines would rise to 16 megawatts from 14 megawatts, and substations to 60 megawatts from 50 megawatts, adding 2.6 gigawatts of solar capacity in Honam without building new networks. Under the flexible connection scheme, generators may connect above the rated grid capacity and have output curtailed when solar generation temporarily exceeds it. A separate self-managed connection system, to be piloted this year and introduced next year, would let operators install renewable equipment at two to three times the rated grid capacity and manage output within permitted limits using energy storage systems.

The ministry also plans to use energy storage at distribution networks and substations as a non-wire alternative, charging solar output during the day and releasing it at night, to add 3 gigawatts of solar on saturated distribution networks and 1.6 gigawatts at substations by 2030.

Access rights taken from idle projects have already recovered about 9 gigawatts of grid capacity, and the ministry expects to recover more than 10 gigawatts in Honam by 2030 by delaying connection rights for long-delayed projects such as offshore wind farms. From 2031, allocation will reflect an actual project completion rate of 67.2 percent rather than assuming all projects proceed on time.

From January 2027, grid connection rights will be granted through competitive bidding tied to an overhaul of the renewable portfolio standard, replacing the current first-come, first-served allocation. Korea Electric Power Corp. will also front the cost of reinforcing distribution networks, with later generators sharing the expense based on equipment capacity.