Electricity sector in Menghe
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Menghe's electricity sector is the largest in Septentrion, with a total electricity output in excess of 3,000 Terawatt hours (3,000,000,000,000 kilowatt hours) per year.
History
Production and capacity
In 2017, Menghe's electricity consumption totaled 3,098 Terawatt-hours per year, or 5,792 kilowatt hours per person per year. This figure can also be represented as 0.413 KWh per dollar of gross domestic product. This represents a tripling of electricity consumption since 2001.
Power sources
Geographic distribution
Menghe's geography poses a number of vast logistical challenges for electricity distribution. The country has large reserves of coal, but they are mostly located in the north and along the east coast. The northern and eastern regions also have the best conditions for hydropower, with consistent year-round rainfall depositing precipitation into easily dammed valleys and canyons. Thus, historically, the eastern Donghae (east sea) region had the easiest access to coal and hydropower, and along with the center-north, became Menghe's industrial heartland.
In the wake of Menghe's economic reform, the south coast has experienced rapid economic growth, bringing with it a surge in electricity consumption. Yet the cost of shipping trainloads or shiploads of coal to the southern ports drives up local electricity prices, and when power is transferred across the country via long-distance lines, a great deal of energy is lost. The lower reaches of the Meng and Ro rivers are also impossible to dam, as the terrain is very flat, resulting in low potential energy and high evaporation from reservoirs, and the rivers themselves must be kept open to high-volume barge traffic. Along with concerns over air pollution, these challenges have led the Menghean government to focus on alternative electricity generation options for the southern region, including solar, wind, and nuclear power.
Coal power
Natural gas power
Although Menghe is committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels, there has been some recent growth in the natural gas sector. In addition to their low operating costs, modern natural gas plants also have highly flexible output levels, and can easily step up output in a short period to account for minute-to-minute fluctuations in electricity demand. This characteristic also allows them to temporarily fill the gap in electricity output when daily or seasonal changes in the weather interfere in solar and wind power production.
Hydroelectricity
Nuclear power
Wind power
Solar power
Corporate structure
Menghean energy policy is governed by the General-Directorate for Energy, an organ of the Ministry of Economic Development. The General-Directorate for Energy contains separate directorates for Coal, Gas, Nuclear, Hydroelectric, Wind, and Solar power, and for grid maintenance.
All electricity distribution in Menghe falls under the control of the Menghean National Grid Corporation, also known as National Grid or MNGC for short. National Grid is a state-owned corporation, and it is formally classified as a state-owned public service entity, meaning that its government mandate stresses particular service outcomes rather than profitability. In this case, National Grid has a state mandate to ensure that electricity prices remain low, stable, and reliable, even if this cuts into short-term profits: should an international crisis lead to a spike in fuel costs, National Grid would be expected to absorb the losses itself, keeping electricity prices stable in order to buffer the economy from supply shocks. Conversely, in periods of low fuel cost, National Grid would charge monopoly prices to recoup its losses and prevent excess consumption.
National Grid is only responsible for electricity distribution. Electricity generation is a partially privatized sphere. Following the separation of plants and grids in 1998, electricity plants were split across four large Jachi-hoesa conglomerates, which have mixed public-private ownership and are managed as private companies. Over the decades that followed, a number of independent private startups have entered the market, either as private ventures or as joint projects with a state-owned partner. These companies are profit-oriented, but they may follow administrative guidance from the Ministry of Economic Development, for example by increasing the share of renewables in response to a nationwide environmental initiative. They also have a monopsonistic relationship with National Grid, as they cannot distribute electricity through any other large-area grid network, though in some cases they may provide a direct electricity supply to a large industrial facility nearby.
Menghe's two main nuclear power providers, Chŏllo Nuclear Energy Corporation and National Nuclear Power Group, are state-owned enterprises, though they are administratively separate from National Grid and in partial competititon with one another. Some of Menghe's independent nuclear reactor deisgns have come from private ventures and university research departments, and the planned second wave of reactor construction after 2029 could bring private IPPs into the nuclear power sector.