A plan is being pushed to build a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) combined-cycle power plant in the Gwangju area, where four semiconductor fabs will be built. The move reflects the judgment that a foundation capable of supplying stable electricity at an early date must be in place for the fabs' early groundbreaking and rapid ramp-up (expansion of mass production volume). The Jeonnam-Gwangju Unified Special City plans to provide support so that construction of the semiconductor cluster can begin as early as within this year.
According to the ruling party, government and energy industry sources on the 8th, the government is considering meeting a portion of the southwestern semiconductor cluster's total power demand of 6.3 gigawatts (GW) with LNG combined-cycle power plants. Coal-fired power plants in Dangjin, Boryeong and Taean in South Chungcheong Province are set to be replaced in phases with LNG combined-cycle plants by 2040. Options under discussion include relocating some of them to the southwestern region or including new LNG combined-cycle plants in the 12th Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply and Demand.
Work to replace coal plants concentrated along the west coast with LNG facilities and move them closer to power-consuming regions is already underway. The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment shut down Unit 1 of the Taean coal-fired plant, which reached its 30-year operating life, at the end of last year and began commercial operation of a new LNG plant this year at the Hi-Tech Valley Industrial Complex 5 in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. The idea is to adjust the coal-plant replacement plan to match surging industrial power demand in the southwestern region.
Mobilizing LNG combined-cycle plants — on top of the government's earlier signal that two more new nuclear reactors could be built in South Jeolla Province — is a strategy to speed up the operation of the Gwangju fabs. While there is space to build two 1.4 GW reactors at the Hanbit nuclear plant site in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province, at least eight years of absolute construction time is expected, considering the saturated spent nuclear fuel storage space and opposition from residents.
The Honam region is rich in renewable energy such as solar power, but even when paired with energy storage systems (ESS), it is difficult to supply electricity stably 24 hours a day. Another burden is that if new power sources are scattered across the southwestern region, new transmission lines would have to be built to reach the semiconductor cluster. As a result, LNG plants — which can supply power stably and take far less time to build than nuclear plants — appear to have emerged as the alternative.
The local community is also mobilizing all its administrative capacity to support the semiconductor cluster. "If the semiconductor cluster is targeting mass production by 2030, this is a speed race on top of a speed race," Min Hyung-bae, mayor of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Unified Special City, stressed at a public executive meeting the same day. "We must check every foreseeable risk."
Behind the government's decision to add LNG combined-cycle generation — after renewables and nuclear — to the Honam semiconductor cluster lies a sense of urgency that the project must be pushed forward at super-accelerated speed. In an era when semiconductor production capacity translates directly into national competitiveness, it means mobilizing every method that is fastest and most stable, from power to water. "There are demands to resolve a massive power supply within two to five years, and this will be the very point that tests the nation's capability," Climate Minister Kim Sung-hwan also stressed in a recent radio interview.
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"...will be decided, so this is far from a race against time," the source said, projecting that "the plan will need to be adjusted in line with changed electricity demand."
