Korea Power Exchange CEO`s schedule

Korea Power Exchange Chairman Yeom Myong-chun left his office at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 15, when Korea suffered its first nationwide mass power blackout. He leisurely ate lunch at a Seoul hotel with five former government officials who were his seniors at the Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry and its successor Knowledge Economy Ministry. Yeom then returned to his office at 1:45 p.m. and later held a 40-minute interview with a magazine.

At 10:50 a.m., some 40 minutes before Yeom went out for the luncheon, a "blue grade" alert under the emergency power supply manual was issued. At 1:50 p.m., the alert level was elevated to "red." A meeting on controlled circular blackout plans for different regions was held at 2:50 p.m., and power went out 10 minutes later. During the magazine interview, which he confessed to a parliamentary hearing Friday that it was not on important issues, a cut in controlled circular power supply was put in place.

The Korea Power Exchange, which regulates plans on construction, operation, suspension and repair of power stations, is in charge of power supply management. The Power Supply Command Center, which constitutes the brain and nervous system of the nation`s power supply, was transferred from Korea Electric Power Corp., or KEPCO, to the exchange. Yeom is the head of the agency in charge of the nation`s power supply, but his schedule on the day of the blackout shows no hints of urgency or sense of crisis whatsoever.

The high daily temperature on Sept. 15 had been predicted several days earlier, but the Korea Power Exchange made an ill-prepared excuse by saying, "The power blackout occurred due to a sudden surge in power demand stemming from the unexpected hike in temperature." Former KEPCO President Lee Jong-hoon expressed regret, saying, "A hydraulic power plant whose operation is suspended can resume power supply in one minute, and a gas turbine-powered power plant can resume power supply in 30 minutes," adding, "If the Korea Power Exchange had requested power plants to urgently operate additional facilities, the crisis could have been averted."

The Korea Power Exchange was spun off from KEPCO under the government`s power industry restructuring conducted in April 2001. Only the founding chairman who served for one year following the agency`s inauguration came from KEPCO, while all four of his successors, including Yeom, who had been appointed since May 2002, were retired government officials from the now-defunct Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry and its successor Knowledge Economy Ministry. This means that at the pretext of restructuring, a new post reserved for retired officials has been added. Korea needs to reinstate a comprehensive power management system, even if it means reintegrating the Korea Power Exchange with KEPCO.

As shown under previous governments, CEOs, executives and staff at state-run companies and agencies can grow negligent in work when the president enters the lame duck phase. Negligence by chiefs of state-run and government organizations, who are appointed from among retired officials, is not a phenomenon that only occurs at the Korea Power Exchange. The presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae has also shown clear signs of sloppiness in duty as President Lee Myung-bak`s term is coming to a close. Critics question what the presidential office is doing these days. President Lee denies that he is a lame duck, and if what he says is true, he should do more to restore order in the public sector and more meticulously pay attention to administration until the last day of his term.