Electric Power
The Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) provided electricity in the country. When KEPCO's predecessor, KECO, was founded in 1961, annual power production was 1,770 million kilowatt-hours (kwhr). Production reached 73,992 million kwhr in 1987. In 1987, residential customers used 17.9% of total production, public and service businesses, 16.2%, and the industrial sector, 65.9%. Sources of power generation were primarily nuclear power, coal, oil, and liquefied natural gas. Of the 54,885 million kwhr of electricity generated in 1985, 22% came from nuclear plants then in operation, 74%, from thermal plants (oil and coal), and 4%, from hydroelectric sites. It was predicted in 1988 that the generation structure by the year 2000 would be 10.2% hydroelectric, 12.2% oil, 22.9% coal, 10.2% LNG, and 44.5% nuclear. More recent statistics:
| Source | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Thermal | 264,747 (62.7%) | 278,400 (64.2%) | 315,608 (66.5%) | 324,354 (65.3%) |
| Nuclear | 150,958 (35.7%) | 147,771 (34.1%) | 148,596 (31.3%) | 154,723 (31.1%) |
| Hydro | 5,561 (1.3%) | 5,641 (1.3%) | 6,472 (1.4%) | 7,831 (1.6%) |
| Other | 1,090 (0.3%) | 1,791 (0.4%) | 3,984 (0.8%) | 9,985 (2.0%) |
| Total | 422,355 | 433,604 | 474,660 | 496,893 |
Read more about this topic: Energy In South Korea
Famous quotes related to electric power:
“Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)