The government plans to further curb coal-fired power generation to respond to the growing fine dust problem.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Monday that a set of fine dust reduction measures will be included in a new plan of long-term electricity supply and demand to be announced later this year.
Part of the plan is to first operate power plants that generate less fine dust such as ones powered by liquefied natural gas. Thus far, coal-fired plants have been operated first due to their lower costs.
The ministry is also seeking to move up the target year to phase out ten aged coal-fired power plants by three years to 2022.
It will also ease conditions for limiting the outputs of coal-powered plants to 80 percent of their capacity on a day with excessive fine dust so the measures will be put in place more frequently and at more power plants.
Other plans include substituting eco-friendly fuels such as wood pellets for some coal generators installed in large-sized coal generation complexes in South Chungcheong Province and the Seoul metropolitan area.