Air conditioners off as South Korea faces power crisis

South Korea ordered sweltering government offices to turn off their air conditioning as two power plants stopped operations, a day after a minister warned of an imminent national energy crisis.

SEOUL // South Korea ordered sweltering government offices to turn off their air conditioning as two power plants stopped operations yesterday, a day after a minister warned of an imminent national energy crisis.

With temperatures nudging 34°C, one Seoul city government employee described her office as "one big dim-sum basket".

The heatwave is also smashing records in Japan, where the mercury hit 41°C yesterday and last week left nine people dead from heat stroke.

The coal-powered Dangjin III plant, with a capacity of 500 megawatts, was taken offline by mechanical issues and will likely remain shut for a week, a spokesman for the state power distributor Korea Power Exchange said.

Technical problems also shut down the nearby Seocheon plant. Although operations resumed after an hour, the plant, also coal-fired, is only working at half its 200-megawatt capacity, the spokesman said.

The warnings and directives for curbing consumption have been met with public anger, with many blaming the government for failing to put adequate safeguards in place.

"This is hardly the first hot summer season we've had. What has the government been doing since last summer, or the summer before?" said one comment on a news portal carrying yesterday's ministry announcement.