Present and Future of Smart Grid World

Korea Smart Grid Week to bring together about 650 experts from around the world

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and Koo Ja-kyun, chairman of the Korea Smart Grid Association (KSGA), who talked about the current status and prospects of the domestic smart grid industry in conjunction with Korea Smart Grid Week, to be held from Nov. 8 to 14 at the Jeju Smart Grid Test Bed and Phoenix Island Resort.
Question: Korea’s international standing in the smart grind sector is growing as you, the KSGA chairman, have been elected vice chairman of the newly inaugurated Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF). Will you comment on your election and the current status of the Korean smart grid industry?
Answer: The GSGF was established with the purpose of promoting the research and development of smart grid technologies by ensuring collaboration among smart grid non-governmental and government organizations. I am striving to promote international cooperation for the development of smart grids by assisting the GSGF chairman. I want to contribute to laying a foundation for the just-inaugurated federation. Internationally, Korea is recognized as a leading country for its technology and enthusiasm for the smart grid, and high hopes are pinned on the operation of the Jeju Smart Grid Test Bed.
Q: What’re the purposes and expectations of the upcoming Korea Smart Grid Week?
A: Recognizing that green growth is the foundation behind global economic development in the years to come and smart grids are expected to play essential roles in green growth, smart grid policymaking bodies and the KSGA are organizing Korea Smart Grid Week on Jeju Island in order to strengthen international cooperation and its global leadership.
This event is expected to serve as an opportunity to move the domestic smart grid industry a step forward by highlighting the PR Center and experience pavilions of the Jeju Smart Grid Test Bed. It is also significant for the nation to have an opportunity to discuss global smart grid issues with the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Furthermore, Korea Smart Grid Week will also host the GSGF’s board of directors’ meeting with the smart grid association chairmen from seven countries.
Korea Smart Grid Week will be an event designed not only to see Korea’s international standing improve by demonstrating and showing off the operation of the smart grid test bed in the presence of global smart grid leaders, but also to help the domestic industry share major smart grid operators’ expertise.
Q: Will you introduce Korea Smart Grid Week opening Nov. 8?
A: The event will bring together approximately 650 smart grid experts, government and industry officials from around the world. The event offers diverse programs including international conferences, a business fair and a tour to the PR center to experience the Jeju Smart Grid Test Bed.
Spectators can see and experience newly emerging systems in an “era of future energy internet” while touring the PR Center and Comprehensive Pavilion of the Jeju Smart Grid Test Bed, which is operated by KEPCO, and four experience pavilions run by LG Electronics, KT, SK Telecom, GS Caltex and POSCO.
Companies, research institutes and academic scholars interested in the smart grid will be given opportunities to obtain high-caliber information from smart grid test bed experts from the United States, Japan, Australia, Italy and the Netherlands will hold a conference to share their expertise and experiences. A smart grid standardization forum, designed to analyze the domestic and overseas environments and explore the smart grid standard field, will take place to discuss smart grid standards with smart grid standard experts from the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States, EU and Japan.
Q: What’s your prediction for the prospects of the future global smart grid market? Could you comment on strategies to survive global smart grid competition?
A: The purpose of building smart grids varies according to country, but they concur on the necessity of smart grids. The size of the global smart grid market is forecast to be tremendous with good potential as countries are aggressively implementing smart grid policies on top of increasing investments. Many experts agree, although their estimates vary, that the smart grid market will maintain steady growth in the years to come.
The smart grid is in the stage of developing component technologies through R&D activities around the world. It is significant to develop systems that have the potential to be commercialized through the verification of test beds. Government and industry sectors need to aggressively invest in R&D as well as implement additional test bed projects to test diverse business models. I think the nation has to secure infrastructure for fostering smart grids as an exporting industry by actively participating in efforts to set standards for technology interoperability.
Q: Will you tell us about your operation of the KSGA and its vision?
A: We’ve made public the “Vision 2010,” with the aim of becoming a global smart grid hub organization. According to the vision, the KSGA aims to increase the number of its member companies from the current 128 to 500 in 2015 and 1,000 in 2020. We plan to reorganize the KSGA, comprising of one bureau and two offices into a structure of one bureau and five headquarters with 120 staff members.
When it comes to standardization, the KSGA aims at becoming a national smart grid standard certification organization charged with creating domestic smart grid standards and proposing global standards.
On the international front, I will serve as a chair of the GSGS until 2012. The KSGA plans to sign MOUs with Australia and India during 2010 as well as Northern Ireland, Japan, China and Malaysia during next year.
Q: Are there any other things you want to mention?
A: Korea’s smart grid project is now a full-fledged one by organizing the Korea Smart Grid Week and inaugurating the PR center and experience pavilions of the Jeju Smart Grid Test Bed. The Korean smart grid industry is making flat-out efforts to lead the global market. I hope that the general public can get a better understanding of the necessity of the smart grid by continuing to support and show interest in the smart grid and by experiencing the smart grid firsthand. nw

LS INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS VICE CHAIRMAN IS SELECTED AS GSGF VICE CHAIRMAN ― GridWise Alliance Chairman Guido Bartels and LS Industrial Systems Vice Chairman Koo Ja-kyun, also chairman of the Korea Smart Grid Association (KSGA), were selected as the first chairman and vice chairman of the recently inaugurated Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF).
The GSGF, an alliance of the smart grid associations of seven countries that will spearhead the global smart grid market, was officially inaugurated in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 21.
The KSGA announced that the representatives of smart grid associations from seven countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland and India, had unanimously agreed on the establishment of the GSGF during a “GSGF meeting” held at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 21, and that the federation was officially launched on Sept. 24.
The GSGF has been established to expedite cooperation between domestic and international non-governmental and governmental organizations and to help spur research into and the advancement and standardization of smart grid technologies.
The GSGF is set to serve as a global center with the remit of addressing smart grid-related technologies and policy issues and to help apply such technologies in a prompt fashion. Notably, the organization is expected to serve as a channel through which countries can share useful information including that on environmental issues such as climate change, model cases, and the reliability, efficiency and security of energy.
Bartels was elected as the founding Chairman of the GSGF, while Chairman Koo Ja-kyun of the KSGA was elected as its Vice Chair.
The chairman is to serve a non-renewable two-year term of office and the vice chairman will automatically become the chairman thereafter.
Thus, the KSGA chairman will be elected as the second chairman of the GSGF in 2012.
A KSGA official said, “The establishment of the GSGF had been discussed gradually since last year, and representatives of the member countries have exchanged detailed plans through several conference calls since July of this year.” He added, “The GSGF will become a global center for smart grid-related technologies and policy issues, and will make major contributions to technology cooperation, early adoption and exchange and cooperation between concerned officials.”
The official added, “Regarding the recommendation of Chairman Ja-kyun Koo as GSGF Vice Chairman, the chairmen of the member countries’ national associations noted that it was a recognition of the important contributions to the establishment of the GSGF and the development of the smart grid by Korea as a leading country in this field, which is conducting exemplary projects for the construction of the smart grid through private-public partnerships.” He added, “When Korea becomes the chair country of the GSGF, the country will be able to further raise its national profile worldwide.”
Chairman Koo of the KSGA proposed that the GSGF hold its second conference during Korea Smart Grid Week (KSGW), which will be held on the resort island of Jeju during the G-20 Summit in Korea in November, and received the approval of the member states.
Accordingly, the KSGA plans to invite representatives of all the GSGF member countries with a view to discussing specific measures to develop the GSGF, and to bring together working-level officials in the smart grid sector from around the world at the KSGW event to share their achievements and tasks.
Meanwhile, the KSGW is being organized to elevate the global status of Korea as a leading player in smart grid in conjunction with the G-20 Summit, and to help the country play a leadership role in international cooperation and standardization in this field by holding a conference on a global demonstration complex on the occasion of the completion of a PR center.
The KSGW, which will take place from Nov. 8 to 14 at Phoenix Island on Jeju, will entail a variety of events including a vice-ministerial meeting of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN), an International Energy Agency (IEA) workshop, an international conference on global smart grid demonstration complexes, a forum on smart grid standard technology, smart grid experience tours and a smart grid business fair. nw

Korea Smart Grid Association Chairman Koo Ja-kyun, concurrently vice chairman of the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF)