The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE, Minister Kim Sungwhan) will hold a meeting on June 4 at the Han River Flood Control Office (located in Seocho-gu, Seoul) regarding the energy storage system (ESS) project for the Sunlight Income Village.

The meeting will be chaired by Minister Kim Sungwhan and attended by representatives from the Sunlight Income Village Promotion Task Force, energy-related institutions, virtual power plant (VPP*)operators, relevant associations and organizations, and experts, who will share a wide range of field-based perspectives.

* A business model that operates distributed energy resources, such as renewable energy and ESS, as a single power generation source.

During the meeting, participants will discuss the overall progress of the Sunlight Income Village project and potential improvements for the installation and utilization of ESS in areas with insufficient power grid capacity.

The existing Sunlight Income Village ESS project was designed on the premise that village-level ESS facilities would be installed and operated so that residents in areas with insufficient grid capacity could also generate income. Under this structure, village cooperatives were required to directly bear a portion of the installation costs as well as the operating expenses.

Local governments and village cooperatives have consistently raised concerns since before the project’s launch about the difficulty of securing funding for ESS installation costs and the potential decline in profitability associated with operating the facilities.

At the meeting, relevant associations, organizations, and project operators are expected to propose that multiple Sunlight Income Village projects be grouped together to jointly install ESS, and that responsibility for installation and operation be transferred to private VPP operators.

In addition, participants plan to request measures to improve project viability, including reducing the cost of ESS facilities and providing support for securing installation sites.

In response, the government plans to revise the project implementation model so that the installation and operating costs previously borne by villages will instead be covered by private VPP operators, enabling them to secure a reasonable return through the operation of ESS.

Through these improvements, the government expects that more regions will apply to participate in the Sunlight Income Village program and that the initiative will contribute to the creation of new energy markets based on VPPs.

Minister Kim Sungwhan stated, “We will move forward with the Sunlight Income Village ESS project in a timely manner by reducing the burden on residents and leveraging private-sector expertise, so that increased income for local residents and greater stability of regional power grids can be achieved simultaneously.”

He added, “We will actively incorporate the on-the-ground insights and experiences of the experts participating in this meeting into policy design so that residents can quickly experience the benefits of the Sunlight Income Village program.”

For further information, please contact the Public Relations Division. 

Contact person: Gina Lee, foreign media spokesperson

Phone: +82-44-201-6055

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