Scorching heat wave to continue in S. Korea throughout the week as Typhoon Jongdari continues to weaken
  • 6 years ago
Weather forecasters, meanwhile, say the heat wave won't be letting up any time soon.
In fact, here in Seoul we're looking at highs of around 39 degrees this week.
The heat's caused a surge in electricity demand, and that has led to power failures.
The government says the electricity supply has now stabilized, but there'll be another peak in the second week of August.
And what was a typhoon over Japan... now looks like it won't be bring us much rain at all.
Kim Hyo-sun reports.
Typhoon Jongdari, which has brought heavy rain to Japan, continues to weaken as it heads towards South Korea's resort island of Jeju.
The Korea Meteorological Administration says the typhoon had weakened to a tropical depression by Sunday afternoon,... but warned that it will still bring strong winds to South Korea's east coast on Monday and the south coast on Tuesday.
The weather office added that the heat wave that has led to power failures will continue.
The government says electricity supply has been stabilized as of last Friday.
While the daily electricity demand peaked at 92-point-48 million kilowatts on July 24th,... it remained around 90 million kilowatts throughout the rest of last week.
The electricity reserve margin which alerted the nation as it dropped into the seven-percent range last Wednesday has jumped back to around nine percent,... closer to the ten percent mark at which power supply is considered stable.
Yet, the government cannot let its guard down as we near August,... when electricity use is expected to rise again.

Jul. 25, 2018
"The second week of August, when most companies resume operations, is considered the electricity usage peak for the summer. We'll face no major challenges even during the peak as we've increased the supply capacity by at least one million kilowatts."

As this year's unexpected heat wave has put the nation's electricity supply on red alert,... the government continues to come up with additional measures to tackle the problem.
Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.
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