In North Chungcheong, a farmer says that 15,000 of his catfish were killed in the unprecedented blackouts last Thursday. In South Chungcheong, a factory owner says his machines stopped and products on the assembly line were damaged. Internet cafes around the country said the blackout forced them to refund payments to customers who couldn’t get online.
Since the government started accepting compensation claims Tuesday from people and businesses affected by Thursday’s rolling blackouts, caused by government agencies’ bungling of the power supply on an unseasonably hot day, hundreds of claims have been made, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy yesterday. It’s estimated that billions of won worth of claims will be filed. The Small and Medium Business Corp. said 4,500 small and midsize companies suffered damages worth 30 billion won ($26 million).
The government will be taking claims for two more weeks, until Oct. 4, at 294 places including the Korea Electric Power Corp.’s (Kepco’s)189 branch offices. The ministry said 167 claims had been made as of Tuesday night.
“We have been bombarded with calls from the early morning with inquiries about how to apply for compensation and prove damages,” said a Kepco employee. “Some 300 claims were registered online, but most of them did not have enough evidence so they were not counted. For those claims, we’ll try to verify them by making inquiries.”
In the case of disputes, a committee set up by the government is going to handle the claims and decide the amount of appropriate compensation.
A housewife who lives in Suwon, Gyeonggi, said she was trapped in an apartment elevator for 40 minutes and afterward experienced a panic disorder and difficulty breathing. She said she is going to the hospital for treatment.
An entrepreneur in Busan said he fell inside a sauna at the time of the blackout. He said he still feels pain.
A beauty salon owner said customers left without paying when the lights went out, and some restaurant owners said fish died in their fish tanks. At a chemical factory in Iksan, North Jeolla, the production line stopped due to the blackout and it claims it lost 11 million won as a result. According to Kim So-nam, a Grand National Party congresswoman, 2,905 people were trapped in elevators during the blackout. A total of 1,902 rescue requests were made. Many people complained that emergency lights in the elevator and alarms didn’t work.
Meanwhile, Yeom Myong-chun, chief executive of Korea Power Exchange (KPX), told lawmakers Monday there could have been times in the past when electricity reserves fell below 100 million kilowatts, far below the safe margin of 400 million kilowatts. This means the country could have suffered total blackouts. Yeom tendered his resignation Monday.
Allowing the reserves to fall so low would be a serious mismanagement of the electricity supply, and the KPX denied Yeom’s assertion the next day.
In another controversy, KPX reported that there were electricity reserves of 390 million kilowatts at 2:30 p.m. last Thursday, but it included over 200 million kilowatts of electricity that could not be supplied immediately. At 3 p.m., Kepco began shutting off electricity in different regions.
KPX said, however, when it estimates electricity reserves, it customarily includes the amount that can be supplied after two hours. KPX said the ministry knew that the calculation was made in that way.
However, the ministry said that is not the case. “When we talk of electricity reserves, we have always meant electricity that can be supplied within two hours,” said a ministry official.
The KPX has a manual on how to deal with a total blackout. When a total blackout occurs, it takes two to three days to partially or fully recover the electricity supply because it takes time to raise voltage to the proper level. For the two to three days, people would have to live not only without electricity but also water, gasoline, gas for heating and cooking, elevators and public transportation. Electricity supply would be restored to the government, military bases, telecommunication facilities, the media, subways and water facilities, in that order. Low-rise apartments, houses, stores and small government offices would be the last to get power back.
By Limb Jae-un [jbiz91@joongang.co.kr]
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