Reforming Korea's Electricity Market for Net Zero

This report was commissioned by Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and carried out jointly by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Korea Energy Economics Institute. The objective of the study was to analyse market design improvements to enable achieving net zero in Korea's power sector, in accordance with the country's long-term decarbonisation objectives.

For this the IEA devised a Korea Regional Power System Model to evaluate the emissions implications of the plans laid out in Korea’s 9th Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply and Demand and the Carbon Neutral Strategy published in 2021. The analysis includes a scenario elaborated by the IEA, based on the World Energy Outlook's Announced Pledges Scenario for 2035, to analyse potential for further market improvements.

This analysis covers market improvements in areas such as carbon pricing, market price enhancements that better reward low-emissions technologies and security of supply, and market access reforms to ensure the participation of a wider range of new technologies and distributed energy resources.