"Build anywhere that has water!" This is the motto of a medium and small sized power plant construction drive pushed forward across North Korea in recent years. North Korea has been suffering from a serious power shortage since the death of national founder and president Kim Il Sung in 1994. As a means of overcoming it, Pyongyang has been encouraging the construction of smaller generating stations since 1998. Faced with very serious power shortages, so serious as to witness blacked-out nights even in Pyongyang, dubbed "the capital of revolution," the North Korean authorities call for building of power plants anywhere that meets the minimum conditions. Power plants of limited scale are being built at the West Sea floodgates, constructed in the estuary of the Taedong River, irrigation waterways, and even on moderately qualified rivers and streams.

North Korea classifies large power stations as those with the power generation capacity of 10,000kw or more, medium-sized power stations are those with the capacity of 1,000kw to 10,000kw, and small sized power stations have a capacity of less than 1,000kw. Medium and small sized power plants therefore denote generating stations with the capacity of less than 10,000kw. Such generating stations under construction in the North are mostly of a small size.

Jagang Province constructed 369 power stations of limited scale in 1999, with a total generating power capacity of 86,080kw. This means that the capacity of the generating stations averages 233kw per unit.

This applies only when all the stations operate in full. In reality the power generated falls far short of the capacity. Consisting mostly of mountains, Jagang province enjoys favorable geographical conditions for the construction of smaller power stations. The capacity of the North's medium- and small-sized power stations nationwide stands at between 20kw and 30kw. The Ministry of Unification has released an analysis that power generated by 5,000-odd generating stations in the North, built in 1998, averaged no more than 7kw per station. That figure corresponds to power consumed by two ordinary households in the South.

Compared with their large counterparts, medium and small sized power plants have the merit of easiness with which they can be built with small quantity of equipment and funding. Local agencies can build many of them with their own funding by mobilizing manpower, with no support, financial or otherwise, from the central government. ,

They are compatible with the North's mountainous topographical conditions. Hilly districts are far more advantageous than flat country where the speed of a current is moderate. It's also positive that they, even if they are hit by war or natural disasters, sustain little losses. These are some of the realistic reasons why North Koreans are focused on building small power plants.

This is not to say, however, that these plants only have merits. Above all, they have the limitation of being susceptible to seasonal effects. During freezing season in winter and dry seasons in spring and autumn, their operational ratio drops markedly and their operations are suspended totally in the worst case.

In addition, building of small power plants by local agencies, due to unfavorable conditions, is often accompanied by flawed designs and construction. Furthermore, equipment malfunctioning and lack of parts render it difficult for them to operate smoothly.

(Kim Kwang In, kki@chosun.com )