Korea Smart Grid Association, KPX Sign MOU for DER Ecosystem
The Korea Smart Grid Association and the Korea Power Exchange signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on September 3rd to expand distributed energy resources and activate new electricity industries.
Our take
Will Korea's planned VPP metering standards make it easier for aggregators to get paid?
Not yet, because the Korea Power Exchange's MOU on VPP metering standards and certification changes no market rule, so aggregator payments still depend on future market rule amendments.
The work is described as phased and mid-to-long term, with no dates and no change to compensation. What would change the answer is the Korea Power Exchange writing the metering standard and certification into its market rules.
What the source says
- The MOU aims to overcome grid constraints from rapidly increasing renewable energy and establish a distributed energy ecosystem early.
- The MOU covers four core areas: standardization and advanced certification for smart grid and DER technologies, VPP resource integrated metering standardization, smart grid and new electricity industry workforce training, and forum operation for DER ecosystem activation.
- Both organizations plan to gradually establish a third-party standard and verification system to quickly reflect private sector technological innovation in market standards over the mid-to-long term.
- Koo Ja-kyun Koo Ja-kyun stated that the agreement was signed to activate new electricity industries, represented by smart grids, to solve problems faced by the power grid due to expanding distributed resources.
- Kim Seong-jin Kim Seong-jin emphasized that reliable power grid infrastructure and a private ecosystem are essential for successfully advancing the power market, including the central contract market and real-time market, alongside the expansion of renewable energy-centric distributed resources.
- Jung Moon-sik Jung Moon-sik highlighted that the forum and MOU provided practical policy certainty for private companies to seize new business opportunities under the Special Act on the Promotion of Distributed Energy.
- Korea Smart Grid Association The Korea Smart Grid Association will promote VPP integrated metering standards and the establishment of a third-party testing and certification system to link technical specifications directly to market profits and compensation.
For investors — VPP operators and aggregators should check whether certification under the new scheme becomes a condition of market participation, since that would shape metering and hardware choices.
Merchant storage investors and optimisers should expect no revenue change now and track market rule amendments rather than MOUs.
Watch: Progress in establishing third-party standards and verification systems for VPP integrated metering and DER technologies.
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