On July 9, 2026, the Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment (the “MOCEE”) announced a proposed bill for the enactment of the “Regulations on the Operation of the Power Grid Impact Assessment System” (the “Proposed Regulations”). The Proposed Regulations are intended to govern the overall operation of the power grid impact assessment system—one of the key features of the Special Act on the Promotion of Distributed Energy (enforced on June 14, 2024)—applicable to business operators affecting the power grid (referring to business operators intending to use 10MW or more of electricity within areas subject to the power grid impact assessment; “Grid-Impact Operators”). Once implemented, the Proposed Regulations are expected to have a significant impact on investments, such as investments into data center development projects. For your reference, we have summarized the key details of the Proposed Regulations in this newsletter.

Under the Proposed Regulations, while the entire nation is subject to the power grid impact assessment, the MOCEE may separately designate excluded areas based on power grid conditions and other factors (Article 3). Consequently, any Grid-Impact Operator planning to use 10MW or more of electricity must undergo a power grid impact assessment, unless the project is located within a region that has been exempted from the assessment pursuant to a policy decision.

The Proposed Regulations mainly govern (i) the evaluation items and methodologies for the power grid impact assessment, (ii) the implementation and monitoring of the required actions arising from the deliberation results of the power grid impact assessment, (iii) the management of power grid impact assessment agents, and (iv) the establishment of the comprehensive information support system, and are slated to take effect from the date of their official promulgation.

Once the Proposed Regulations come into effect, the power grid impact assessment, which has been conducted on a pilot basis, is expected to be officially launched thereunder.
 

The evaluation targets include not only (i) technical items, such as the degree of overload and the level of increase in overload occurring in grid facilities after electricity is supplied to a Grid-Impact Operator, the capability to maintain voltage at appropriate levels, the difficulty of reinforcing power facilities needed to alleviate the overload, and the installation of energy management and storage systems (xEMS and ESS) by the Grid-Impact Operator; but also (ii) non-technical items, such as the project’s contribution to local government finances and job creation, its contribution to balanced national development, policy alignment, and economic growth, as well as its contribution to achieving the policy goal of decentralizing power demand (the specific evaluation and scoring criteria for each evaluation item are prescribed in further detail in Annex Tables 3 through 16 of the Proposed Regulations).

For reference, when compared with the evaluation items and scoring criteria of the current pilot program, the major differences are as follows: (i) the criteria which were originally separated into non-technical evaluation items (15 points) and policy-related evaluation items (30 points) in the existing pilot program have been integrated into non-technical evaluation criteria (45 points) under the Proposed Regulations; (ii) the item for additional points “Contribution to Securing Supply Capacity through Site Provision,” has been changed from a technical evaluation item to a non-technical evaluation item; and (iii) the original “Compliance with Electricity-Related Policies (20 points)” item has been further subdivided into “Compliance with Electricity-Related Policies (10 points)” and “Contribution to National Policy (10 points)” with more specific scoring standards established, alongside the newly introduced “Power Utilization Density” item, an item for deduction of points.

Under the evaluation items and scoring criteria under the Proposed Regulations, projects located in non-metropolitan areas are more likely to receive higher scores, and the passing threshold for the power grid impact assessment for data centers (Annex Table 2) is also higher for the metropolitan area than for non-metropolitan areas (75 points for the metropolitan area versus 70 points for non-metropolitan areas). Consequently, it is anticipated that securing new power capacity to develop data centers requiring 10MW or more of power within the metropolitan area will continue to be relatively more difficult than in non-metropolitan areas.
 

With respect to these required actions, the Grid-Impact Operator must submit the implementation results to the MOCEE, and on-site inspections may be conducted if necessary. Caution is advised because if the Grid-Impact Operator fails to faithfully implement the required actions or if the implementation is deemed insufficient: (i) administrative dispositions may be imposed by the MOCEE; (ii) at the electricity use application and contract stage, the application or contract may be suspended, rejected, or terminated; (iii) prior to the electricity supply stage, the electricity use contract may be terminated; and (iv) after the electricity supply commences, administrative fines may be imposed or a business suspension order may be issued (Article 27, Paragraph 4; Annex Table 17).
 

^[1]   (+) means additional points, and (-) means deduction of points.

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