South Korea grid overhaul to connect more than 100 GW of renewables

South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE) has lifted restrictions on new renewable energy connections in the Honam region, which covers Gwangju and the provinces of North and South Jeolla in the country’s southwest.

Projects already waiting for connection will get priority for early connection applications, while new projects will apply under a revised framework from January 2027, said the ministry. Parts of the Chungcheong region that were closed to new generation will also reopen, and restrictions on the east coast will be lifted in the first half of 2027, when the first phase of a high-voltage direct current line from the east coast to Singapyeong is completed.

Under a new flexible connection regime, projects can connect beyond a grid section’s normal hosting limit and will have output curtailed when generation exceeds what the network can take. The ministry said this raises the solar connection limit on a distribution line from 14 MW to 16 MW and at a substation from 50 MW to 60 MW. It estimates the change will allow 2.6 GW of additional solar in Honam alone without new grid construction.

The MCEE also plans to use energy storage as an alternative to new lines. By 2030, it aims to connect 3 GW of additional solar in saturated areas through storage on distribution networks and another 1.6 GW through storage at substations. The ministry did not specify the capacity of the batteries involved.

It said it has already recovered 9 GW of grid connection rights by checking solar projects that had reserved capacity but were not viable. It will now also push back the connection rights of long-delayed projects to the date they will actually use the grid. The ministry said it expects to recover more than 10 GW in Honam alone by 2030 as a result, including from delayed offshore wind projects. For capacity entering from 2031, it will allocate connection rights using a 67.2% actual on-time completion rate for renewable projects, instead of assuming every project is built on schedule.

Connection studies will also change. Until now, they assumed new renewable generation would run after existing fossil fuel plants. They will now assume renewables are dispatched first, reflecting actual grid operation. The ministry estimates this will allow 20 GW of additional renewable capacity nationwide by 2030, including in the southeastern Yeongnam region and northeastern Gangwon province, where coal and liquefied natural gas plants are concentrated.

From January 2027, grid connection rights will be linked to a reformed renewable portfolio standard, with rights going to projects selected through competitive bidding rather than on a first-come, first-served basis.

The ministry projects that the measures will raise national transmission-level renewable hosting capacity from 119 GW to 171 GW by 2030, and distribution-level capacity from 84 GW to 110 GW. In Honam, it projects transmission capacity rising from 37 GW to 64 GW and distribution capacity from 18 GW to 30 GW.

Separately, the Korea Power Exchange opened a tender on Sept. 22 for 1,100 MW/6,600 MWh of six-hour battery storage under 15-year contracts. Winners are due to be announced in November, with projects to be commissioned by February 2029.

Seoul-based think tank Solutions for Our Climate argued in a June 2026 paper that South Korea’s first-come, first-served queue allowed stalled projects to hold scarce grid capacity, and it called for connections to be prioritized by project readiness, with greater disclosure of congestion data. South Korea is forecast to add 3.5 GW of solar this year, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea.

The post appeared first on pv magazine Global.