According to a report by a South Korean Newspaper, South Korean Government will establish a blockchain-enabled virtual power plant in the city of Busan. The plant will be worth 4 billion Korean won (KRW) which is close to $3.5 million.
Busan, is South Korea’s second most populated city .The project is the brainchild of city administration’s drive to support a unique and innovative energy industry in the region . They plan to achieve it by establishing a VPP based on a common blockchain. The project is expected to be revealed at the National competition in 2019. The competition is hosted by the Korea Electric Power Corporation, the largest Electric Utility in South Korea.
A virtual power plant is a cloud-based distributed power plant builds on the idle capacities of several energy resources in order to enhance power generation.
The recently announced blockchain-powered VPP project will aggregate such power sources. These include Busan area factories and public facilities of energy storage system as well as solar power plants.
The project was reportedly proposed by the city of Busan, as well as major local companies and institutions including Pusan National University (PNU), energy management firm Nuri Telecom, Busan City Gas and real estate firm Korea Industral Complex Corporation.
Busan’s Rapid Growth in Blockchain Sector
The city of Busan has already been actively developing and promoting blockchain technology.
Earlier this year, Yoo Jae-soo, the Minister of Economic Affairs in Busan and former director general for financial policy at the Financial Services Commission (FSC), reportedly held a meeting. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the establishment of a special zone in the city. The zone would bring forth friendly environment for the development of the blockchain and crypto industry.
In June of this year, South Korean governmental agency, Industry-SW ICT Convergence Association (WICA), also revealed plans to establish a blockchain center in Busan modeled on Switzerland’s Crypto Valley.
According to the plan, the South Korean version of Zug’s Crypto Valley is set to be located at Haeundae, an affluent and touristic beachfront space in eastern Busan.
Earlier today, the country’s second-biggest commercial bank, Shinhan Bank, launched a blockchain-based initiative within the internal processes of the institution in order to reduce the number of human errors in record keeping.
