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Blackout: Cause & Aftermath

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2011-09-20

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Welcome back.
Let's begin this half-hour with last week's power outage that affected large parts of this country in fact‚ more than one million households and businesses across the nation experience inconvenience due to the blackout.
The Minister of Knowledge Economy‚ who is in charge of Korea's energy policies‚ held a press briefing on Sunday to explain the cause of the incident and to announce the government's next moves.
Reports say the unprecedented power failures were mainly caused by a combination of unexpected demand from air conditioners due to higher-than-average temperatures and reporting breakdowns within the power agency.
But was this a problem of human error or infrastructure[Reporter : ] Last Thursday‚ more than 1.6 million households in Seoul and its neighboring regions experienced power outages‚ which was caused by a sudden surge in demand for electricity during unseasonably high temperatures.
The temperature peaked at 31.3 degrees Celsius‚ more than five degrees higher than the nation's 30-year average of 26 degrees for this time of the year.
This caused many to turn on their air conditioners‚ driving up power consumption.
But it's not just the hot weather that made the nation's energy regulators to institute rolling blackouts for about five hours last week.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said it had informed the Korea Electric Power Corporation that the summer contingency period had been extended to September 23rd‚ but a number of power plants had closed down for maintenance.
At the time of the blackout‚ 25 generating stations were not operating‚ which is a loss of nearly 8 million kilowatts.
Another factor pointed out by Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Joong-kyung is that a false report was submitted by the Korea Power Exchange‚ the state-run power distributor in charge of balancing the nation's power supply and demand.
The minister said energy officials failed to estimate the exact amount of power needed at that time.
[Interview : Choi Joong-kyung‚ Minister
Ministry of Knowledge Economy] "The nation's power capacity was overestimated at around 71 million kilowatts‚ which is some 3 million kilowatts more than the actual capacity of 68 million. At the time of the power failure‚ the nation's electricity reserve stood at around 240-thousand kilowatts."
And it was during the briefing that the minister offered his resignation‚ wasn't it[Reporter : ] Well‚ Choi said he felt responsible for the blackout‚ as he is the minister in charge of Korea's energy policies.
He said he failed to respond to the problem in a timely manner‚ adding that he could have asked for help from related institutions‚ including turning off air conditioners at large workplaces and asking the public for their cooperation.
Like I said‚ the blackouts lasted for about five hours‚ but energy regulators did not issue any previous notice or warning to the public about the power shortage before they pulled the plugs.
But what is important to note is that the minister did not actually step down right away and instead expressed a willingness to leave his post.
[Interview : Choi Joong-kyung‚ Minister
Ministry of Knowledge Economy] "As the minister in charge of the incident‚ I will not cling on to my post and take full responsibility by doing my utmost to come up with preventive measures and to find out what caused the blackout."
Earlier on Sunday‚ ahead of the briefing‚ officials at the presidential office had urged Choi to assume responsibility for the nationwide blackout by resigning from his post.
And during his visit to the Korea Electric Power Corporation on Friday‚ President Lee Myung-bak said the Ministry of Knowledge Economy‚ KEPCO and Korea Power Exchange were all responsible for the developments.
However‚ it's speculated that Choi's resignation will

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