The South Korean government has floated plans for the development of an intelligent power grid that optimizes electricity production through the use of artificial intelligence.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for the development of a “next generation” power grid that can incorporate the use of AI while addressing the growing use of distributed energy systems, especially renewable energy.

"Energy transition has become an essential task," Lee said during a meeting of senior presidential aides. "On top of an artificial intelligence revolution, the supply of renewable energy through power grid improvement has become very urgent."

The new power grid would replace the current ‘one-way’ system with a ‘two-way’ system that permits electricity to be sent to demand sites through the transmission network, with any excess electricity transmitted back into the grid.

According to the government, the use of AI will be central in supporting this, as it will allow the grid to accurately predict renewable energy generation and electricity demand. As a result, when there is surplus capacity on the grid, it will be able to utilize more renewable energy, reducing the need for output control.

In order to streamline the process, the government is planning regulatory exemptions to the Electricity Business Act and the electricity market, as a means to support the development of the system. In addition, it also plans to support the emergence of electricity rate systems by allowing direct electricity trading between local power companies and demand enterprises.

The president's office said that the government plans to turn South Jeolla Province into a hub for the plan, due to its high renewable potential. According to local reports, the government has already announced plans to invest more than 200 billion won ($144 million) in five microgrid projects as a test case for their use in a future power grid.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), as of 2023, Korea is highly dependent on fossil fuels for its energy, with 24 percent derived from coal, 36.6 percent from oil, and 18.5 percent from natural gas.

The country has set a goal of using at least 20 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 35 percent by 2040, which is far below most other industrialized countries. In May, the country said it intended to launch several major renewable tenders with a combined capacity of 2.25GW.

At present, South Korea has the sixth-largest data center market in the Asia-Pacific region, with upwards of 600MW of installed capacity. The majority of South Korea's data center market is located around Seoul, the capital. While the country is clearly lagging behind others in terms of renewable energy capacity, data centers in the country have begun to make a concerted effort to decarbonize their operations.

Last November, state utility Korea Southeast Power and EPC firm Samsung C&T announced plans for the “Dangjin Green Energy Hub,” a hydrogen fuel cell power plant linked to a data center. If built, the project would be the country’s first fuel cell hydrogen power plant, utilizing a 900MW hydrogen plant in conjunction with 300MW of battery energy storage to support the operations of a large-scale data center.