South Korea opens hydrogen power bidding market

South Korea has opened today what it describes as the world's first hydrogen bidding market, according to the country's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Motie).

There will be two bidding rounds held this year, with one that will start on 9 June and the other in this year's second half. This round's bidding volume of 650GWh is half of the 1,300GWh for this year.

The hydrogen power generation bidding market will allow power producers to sell electricity generated from hydrogen or hydrogen compounds to state-owned Korea Electric Power and other domestic power utilities.

South Korea's government views the introduction of hydrogen power generation as essential to achieving nationally-determined contribution targets, expecting it to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 8.3mn t by 2030 from 2027 levels.

The ministry expects the bidding market to promote competition among hydrogen power generation technology, reducing the unit price of power generation.

Successful bidders will be selected in mid-August, after Motie's evaluation of various non-price indicators such as the price index, the impact on the power system, as well as industrial and economic contributions.

The clean hydrogen power generation market will only open in early 2024, after a clean hydrogen certification system and relevant laws are enacted.

By Simone Tam