Electricity Use in Korea - Changing Trends?

With winter approaching, the KBS has reported that representatives of the Korean government have met with representatives of the nation's electric utility companies to make sure that Korea's electricity supply system is capable of meeting the high demand for electricity that will certainly materialize when the cold weather arrives.

This comes only a few weeks after blackouts occurred in the north-western parts of South Korea.  These blackouts were apparently caused by a surge in the demand for electricity as a result of unseasonably high temperatures in mid-September.


I wonder if the energy demand trends in Korea are shifting like they did in Ontario about a decade ago.  On page 26 of a report produced almost ten years ago for the Chief Conservation Officer of the Ontario Power Authority, it is written:
"Ontario’s electricity system has traditionally peaked during the winter months, either during the Christmas period as a result of seasonal outdoor lighting, or in the coldest month, due to electric heating requirements. In 1998, for the first time, the system peaked during the summer. Since that time, the annual peak has occurred during hot summer weather in every year except 2000."
(ICF Consulting.  (Last revision, November 2005).  "Factor Analysis of Ontario Electricity Use – 1990-2003", p. 26.
Retrieved October 2, 2011 at:  http://www.fit.powerauthority.on.ca/Storage/14/995_Factor_Analysis_of_Ontario_Electricity_Use_1990-2003.pdf)

The cause of this shift in the electricity usage patterns of Ontarians is identified on page 27 of the same report.  Specifically:
"Space cooling energy use has increased rapidly in both the Residential and Services sector over the past 13 years. Air conditioning loads have a very low annual load factor and a very high coincidence with the system peak. As the saturation of residential air conditioning has increased, the system has become much more weather sensitive. This has resulted in the Ontario electricity system moving from a winter to a summer peak."
(ICF Consulting.  (Last revision, November 2005).  "Factor Analysis of Ontario Electricity Use – 1990-2003", p. 27.
Retrieved October 2, 2011 at:  http://www.fit.powerauthority.on.ca/Storage/14/995_Factor_Analysis_of_Ontario_Electricity_Use_1990-2003.pdf)


To paraphrase the report...
The people of Ontario, a region of the world that experiences bitterly cold winters, have traditionally used more electricity in winter, to heat their homes.  But in the last decade, air conditioning units have been deployed en masse in Ontario homes.  As a result, Ontarians now utilize more electrical energy in the summer, cooling their homes, than they do in the winter, heating them.


Korea, like Ontario, experiences cold winters, and it seems reasonable to me that historically, Koreans must have utilized a lot of electrical energy to heat their homes in winter.  However, it seems to me that air conditioning units are currently being deployed very rapidly throughout Korea.  Perhaps Koreans, too, will soon begin using more electrical energy trying to keep cool in the summer than they do trying to stay warm in the winter.