KEPCO official urges proactive grid buildout as AI power demand surges

"To support the spread of artificial intelligence and the expansion of renewable energy, we need a paradigm shift so that a proactively built power grid leads demand and generation," Kwak Eun-seop, head of system planning at Korea Electric Power Corp., said Tuesday.

Kwak made the remarks at the “2026 Ajunews Second Energy Forum,” held at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul and hosted by Ajunews.

He said surging electricity demand from data centers is turning the grid from basic supply infrastructure into a key factor in national competitiveness. “The power grid is the critical link between carbon neutrality and energy security,” he said, adding that it should be treated as a power-system stability issue, not simply a connection problem.

Kwak said power density at AI data centers is rising fast. He cited Nvidia GPU racks, saying their power use increased from about 13 kilowatts in 2020 to 130 kilowatts in 2025 and could expand to about 600 kilowatts. “The day is not far off when a single data center uses gigawatt-level power, comparable to one nuclear power plant unit,” he said.

He also pointed to the burden of concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area. As of March, 598 of 853 new power-connection applications — 70% — were in the capital region. Yet the region’s recent energy self-sufficiency rate stands at just 0.61, meaning it must draw electricity from outside areas.

Kwak said grid expansion is not keeping pace with demand. KEPCO estimates that building a 345-kilovolt transmission line typically takes 13 years. Data centers and renewable energy facilities can be built in two to three years, but transmission projects take far longer due to site selection, local acceptance, permits and construction.

“Delays in building transmission networks are not unique to Korea; they are common overseas as well,” he said. “If we wait only for perfect transmission expansion, it will be difficult to keep up with the pace of rising AI and renewable-energy demand.”

He said another major variable is how electricity is used. Unlike traditional industrial facilities, AI data centers can see power use swing sharply in milliseconds.

“If loads of several hundred megawatts change abruptly, they can trigger voltage and frequency fluctuations and even system oscillations,” he said, warning it could strain equipment across the grid, including shorter transformer life and malfunctions in protective relays.

Kwak said South Korea may be more vulnerable because its grid is an isolated system not connected to overseas networks. “Europe and North America can disperse some shocks through cross-border interconnections, but in Korea internal system stability is even more important,” he said.

As responses, KEPCO proposed establishing grid-code standards for connecting large data centers, expanding flexible connections using energy storage systems, and introducing a virtual power line, or VPL.

“Stronger technical standards are not regulation; they are to stably accommodate more data centers,” Kwak said. “We will work to make sure the expansion of AI and renewable energy is not blocked by making the most of the existing transmission network.”