[The Hwankyung Ilbo] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that it will suspend the operation of old coal power plants in the springtime from March to June, when fine dust is heavy.

The government will shut down four of the six plants that are older than 30 years in Gyeongsangnam-do and Chungcheongnam-do. The other two plants in Jeollanam-do were excluded from the list of shutdowns to maintain stable power systems in the region.

Under the measure, ultra-fine dust (PM 2.5) is expected to be reduced by 1,174 tons, accounting for 5.1% of the total amount of fine dust created from coal power plants in 2018.

Electricity supply and demand is expected to remain stable during the downturn compared to summer and winter. The government will secure supply capacity through adjustment of generator maintenance schedule to prepare for unexpected increase in demand and other generator failures and deploy necessary manpower in case of emergency.

In addition to shutdowns in the spring, the Ministry will continue to tighten its fine dust reduction policy such as expanding thermal power generation ceiling.

Fine dust emitted from coal power generation for the past three years has been reduced by more than 25% through the shutdown in the spring and early abolition of old coal-fired power plants and improvement of environmental facilities.

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