Unprecedented 20 minute blackout at Yeosu may cost billions

20-Jan-11

The petrochemical industrial complex in Yeosu, South Korea has suffered a power outage this week. 20 of Yeosu Industrial Complex’s 268 companies were left without power for 20 minutes after a power generator operated by Korea Power Electricity Corp. tripped. Blackouts during winter are common in the country, but a 20 minute outage is unprecedented. Full restoration of production at the 20 affected facilities is expected to take up to two days. As per joongang.co.kr, this power outage could result in losses of tens of billions of won. The cause of the blackout has not been determined, but Kepco assumes the outage was caused by the restoration of a 154,000 volt power line to the complex’s Yongseong substation. Kepco ruled out a connection between record electricity usage across the country and the Yeosu Industrial Complex power failure. GS Caltex, the complex’s largest tenant, had not restarted production at its plant by yesterday afternoon. GS Caltex’s three paraxylene units in Yeosu with a combined capacity of 1.35 mln tpa, are all shut down because of the blackout.