The Gwangju-South Jeolla integrated special city has entered the race to host a unified headquarters for state-owned power generation companies, setting up a fierce competition with South Gyeongsang Province, South Chungcheong Province, Ulsan and other regions where those firms are currently based.
The integrated city said Saturday it had formally requested Kim Sung-hwan, minister of climate, environment and energy, to establish the unified headquarters in the Gwangju-South Jeolla area as part of the government's restructuring of state power generation companies.
The city cited its large-scale offshore wind complex as a key reason for the bid, positioning it as the optimal alternative to coal-fired power generation.
The city said the broader South Jeolla region — prior to integration — is already being developed as a next-generation grid innovation hub and a decentralized energy special zone. It added that the concentration of key power sector institutions, including Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korea Power Exchange, Kepco KDN and Kepco Plant Service & Engineering, would allow for maximum policy coordination.
Hwang Gi-yeon, administrative vice mayor of the Gwangju-South Jeolla integrated special city, said the city would "form a TF and a pan-civic recruitment committee and launch full-scale efforts to build public support."
The government is pushing to merge five state-owned power generation companies — Korea South-East Power (KOEN), Korea Midland Power, Korea Western Power, Korea Southern Power and Korea East-West Power — into a single entity.
sij@heraldcorp.com
