Korea's grid management shifts to spring/fall oversupply, DR gains momentum
Korean electricity authorities have shifted grid management focus from summer/winter shortages to spring/fall oversupply, designating September 19 to November 15, 2026, as a stabilization period. This shift led to "plus DR" activation for four days during the September 24-27, 2026, Chuseok holiday.
Our take
Does Korea's spring and autumn solar oversupply make demand response a viable business?
Spring and autumn solar oversupply makes demand response in Korea more needed but not yet more profitable, because load increases are paid a fixed rate that does not rise when surplus deepens.
Oversupply raises how often load increases are called, but demand response competes for the same hours with curtailment and storage charging, which the grid operator uses. What decides the margin is whether the planned real-time, ancillary service and VPP markets price surplus hours, and no opening date is given.
What the source says
- On October 6, 2026, solar power generation reached 18,911 MW, making up 25.6% of the total demand of 73,960 MW.
- During the September 24-27, 2026 Chuseok holiday, total power demand dropped to around 47.3 GW, roughly half of the 95.3 GW summer peak in August 2026.
- Electricity Authorities Electricity authorities designated September 19 to November 15, 2026, as the 'fall off-peak power supply stabilization period' (58 days) and initiated an emergency operation system.
- DR Industry The DR industry expects the 'plus DR' market's successful bid volume to grow by 1.3 to 1.4 times by Spring 2027.
- Domestic plus DR compensation is fixed at around 60 KRW per kWh, offering little incentive for companies to adjust their weekend daytime operations.
- Japan In contrast, Japan provides retail tariff incentives, negative price bidding in wholesale markets, and supply-demand linked structures to encourage flexible consumption.
- DR Industry official A DR industry official emphasized the need for a more realistic compensation system to maintain trust with demand resources and encourage continuous weekend operations by manufacturing firms to resolve surplus power.
For investors — VPP operators and aggregators should model load-increase demand response at today's fixed rate and treat market reform as upside, not base case.
Merchant storage investors and optimisers should track whether the real-time and ancillary service markets open with prices for surplus hours, since the same hours are their cheapest charging window.
Watch: Progress in establishing a more realistic compensation system for demand response (DR) and the official opening of real-time, ancillary service, and virtual power plant (VPP) markets.
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