KERI Center Director urges EV charging adjustments for grid balance
Lee Byung-yoon, Director of KERI's Power ICT Research Center, proposed on October 19, 2026, that Korea should use electric vehicle (EV) charging adjustments for demand-side power management to balance the grid. He emphasized this approach as more cost-effective than expanding generation capacity.
Our take
Can EV charging become a demand response business in Korea?
EV charging is not yet a demand response business in Korea, because the model is a state research institute's proposal with no programme, payment rate or timetable behind it.
The proposed structure puts a service provider between the EMS operator and EV owners, the role an aggregator would play, but the article names no payer or rate. What decides viability is whether a programme admits EV charging as a paid demand response resource.
What the source says
- Lee Byung-yoon Expanding power supply by increasing generation facilities is less cost-effective than reducing power demand.
- Lee Byung-yoon Maintaining grid operating frequency within a certain range is crucial for supplying electrical energy to consumers.
- Lee Byung-yoon The expansion of renewable energy sources makes it increasingly difficult to maintain demand-supply balance due to their variability.
- Lee Byung-yoon Traditional power system planning focused on large-scale generation and transmission, with less attention to the demand side.
- Lee Byung-yoon Power demand is surging due to semiconductors and AI, making new power infrastructure construction very difficult.
- Lee Byung-yoon Electric vehicles can serve as demand resources by flexibly adjusting their power consumption timing.
- Lee Byung-yoon The proposed service involves an EMS operator determining demand response requirements, which a service provider then relays to individual EV owners.
For investors — VPP operators and aggregators should treat EV charging in Korea as a resource to prepare for, not a revenue line, until a programme sets eligibility and payment for shifted charging.
EV charging platform operators should check whether their systems can receive day-ahead demand response requests and pass them to drivers, the step the proposal assigns to service providers.
Watch: Expert statements or proposals from KERI or similar research institutions regarding demand-side management and EV integration.
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