LG Electronics, together with Korea East-West Power, is building an 'ESS for peak reduction' at LG Smart Park in Changwon to reduce electricity bills.

LG Electronics announced that it held the 'Changwon LG Smart Park Peak Reduction ESS Completion Ceremony' at LG Smart Park in Changwon, Gyeongnam Province on the 27th. The event was attended by LG Electronics H&A Business Division President Ryu Jae-cheol and Korea East-West Power President Kim Young-moon.

The 'Energy Storage System (ESS) for peak shaving' stores electricity in batteries during late night hours and then discharges it during peak hours during the day. It is gaining attention as an eco-friendly solution that can lower factory electricity rates by using electricity at night, when electricity usage is low and electricity rates are low, during the day.

The newly built ESS will be operated by Korea East-West Power and is expected to save approximately 77.4 billion won in electricity bills over the next 15 years.

The ESS for peak reduction recently built by LG Electronics is a large-scale facility with a battery capacity of 163 megawatt-hours (MWh) and a power conditioning system (PCS) capacity of 44 megawatts (MW), taking into account economic feasibility and efficiency.

This is a battery capacity that can replace about 15% of the total average daily power consumption of LG Smart Park. Considering that the average daily power consumption of a four-person household in Korea is 11.7 kilowatt hours (kWh) (based on an average monthly power consumption of 350 kWh), it can store enough electricity for 14,000 households to use in a day.

LG Electronics provides total ESS solutions ranging from design to construction, including PCS, power management system (PMS), and batteries.

The ESS built this time is equipped with LG Electronics PCS and PMS and LG Energy Solution batteries, and LG Electronics provides a three-year free warranty for all ESS components, including the batteries.

LG Electronics also said that this project is part of its ESG (environment, society, governance) management that reduces the operation of standby power generation facilities by lowering the peak power (maximum power) of the national power grid and also contributes to reducing greenhouse gases.

Recently, in collaboration with GS EPS, the company completed the first phase of construction of a solar power plant on the rooftop of the LG Smart Park building and began operation. It is expected that by 2025, more than 10% of building use will be replaced by solar power generation.

Meanwhile, LG Electronics has successfully built ESS for frequency regulation at the Korea Electric Power Corporation’s Shingeryong Substation in 2015, ESS linked to renewable energy sources at Gyeongju Wind Power in 2017, ESS for peak reduction at Korea Iron and Steel’s Changwon Plant in 2018, the largest ESS in Korea (battery capacity: 340 MWh) at Anjwa Smart Farm & Solar City in 2021, and the largest ESS for peak reduction at KG Dongbu Steel’s Dangjin Plant in 2021 (battery capacity: 174.7 MWh).

LG Electronics H&A Business Division President Ryu Jae-cheol said, “We will further strengthen the competitiveness of our global home appliance business by leading LG Smart Park with various eco-friendly solutions added to our industry-leading differentiated product manufacturing technology.”