[The Hwankyung Ilbo] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it plans to suspend the operation of five aged coal power plants from March to June as part of measures to ease fine dust pollution.

Last year, 8 power plants were temporarily closed for the first time on a pilot basis in June, but 3 of them were closed down, so the remaining five will be shut down for four months.

The shutdown measure is expected to reduce 813 tons of fine dust (PM2.5) in the air, which is equivalent to 8.6 percent of last year’s output from the nation’s coal power plants in the four-month period.

The Ministry of Environment plans to measure and analyze the impact of the temporary suspension on the improvement of air quality.

Meanwhile, stable power supply management is predicted to be possible as electricity demand is not expected to be high during the shutdown period (March ~ June) compared to the winter and summer seasons.

In order to prevent unexpected surges of demand and other generator failures, the government plans to adjust the maintenance schedule of the generator to ensure supply capability and maintain the standby status of the standby generator.

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