Comrade Kim Jong Un stated as follows:

“Saving electricity means increasing electricity production.”

Today’s reality, in which the struggle to implement the five-year plan for national economic development is unfolding strongly, calls for all sectors and units of the people’s economy to raise high the slogan of self-reliance and self-sufficiency and to increase production to the maximum extent and save electricity.

In particular, as the country’s electricity demand increases day by day, one of the most important issues nowadays is to normalize electricity production at a high level, while at the same time saving and effectively using it to the maximum extent.

The other day, we talked with Ri Go, the Director General of the Ministry of Electric Power Industry, and Pak Myung Yun, the Chief Manager of the Ministry, about the issue of power saving, which requires little effort and yields a great deal of benefits.

Reporter: Smoothly solving the power problem is one of the most important issues in the economic construction and improvement of people’s lives these days.

Director: Yes, it is. Electricity is the most important requirement everywhere today. As the country’s economic foundation becomes stronger and the struggle for economic construction and the improvement of people’s lives advances vigorously, including the construction of many modern cities in accordance with the Party’s grand construction concept, the demand for electricity is increasing day by day. In order to meet this demand smoothly, it is important to normalize electricity production at a high level, but it is equally important to conserve and effectively use the electricity produced to the maximum extent possible.

All sectors and units should actively contribute to solving the power problem by taking the activities of maximizing the conservation and effective use of produced electricity not as mere practical activities, but as a matter of life and death for the country’s economic development and the improvement of people’s livelihood, and by pushing ahead with them vigorously.

Reporter: It is important to continue to vigorously promote activities to reduce power consumption limits to the minimum in all sectors and units of the people’s economy.

Chief Manager: Yes, that is right. In order to achieve this, all departments and units must patiently push forward with activities to convert their production processes to energy-saving ones under a concrete plan. In particular, sectors and units that consume a lot of electricity must be encouraged to modify their technologies to reduce electricity consumption as much as possible. Based on the principle of professionalizing production and ensuring profitability, production processes with high power consumption should be boldly organized and updated, and overcapacity facilities should be replaced with suitable ones.

Machinery and equipment must be developed and manufactured in an energy-saving manner, and advanced power measurement devices must be introduced to improve power utilization. In addition, technical measures to conserve electricity must be thoroughly implemented in all living spaces, and various methods and means to conserve electricity must be actively developed and introduced, such as installing automatic sensors in the lighting of corridors in residences and institutional buildings in particular.

Reporter: Isn’t the organization of staggered production also an important issue to be addressed in order to maximize the conservation and effective use of electricity produced?

Director: Yes, it is. The staggered shift production organization is one of the production organization methods that rationally adjusts the power loads of different power consumers in the power system, so that power production and power consumption are merged in detail. The staggered shift production organization makes it possible to save a lot of electricity by effectively utilizing the produced electricity. The staggered shift production organization is an extremely important project that guarantees the power demanded by various production units within the allocated power consumption limit in a timely manner and ensures the smooth execution of production tasks. Therefore, the desired results can only be achieved if the company is firmly in command of the project and strongly promotes control over it.

In order to firmly direct the staggered shift production organization, a well-organized staggered shift production organization system must be established in all sectors and units of the people’s economy. This project should be scientificized through precise planning of the production schedule in conjunction with the staggered-shift production organization, strengthening of directives, and active adoption of modern means.

Reporter: The issue of increasing the power factor is also considered an important way to save electricity.

Chief Manager: The power factor refers to the ratio of effective power to complete power. Only by increasing the power factor can the power produced be used more effectively. To increase the power factor, reactive power compensators must be installed while reducing the reactive power consumption of the load. Currently, efforts are being actively made to guarantee a load power factor of 95% or higher by distributing reactive power compensating devices on the load side.

Since the beginning of this year alone, our electric power industry sector has actively promoted the centralized installation of reactive power compensating devices, including capacitors, at substations and other important points in the power transmission and distribution network, and this has been successful. In close collaboration with various scientific research units, various departments and units of the People’s Economy have also researched and developed automatic power factor correction devices that can guarantee a load power factor of 95% or more, and have introduced them into practice.

If 1,000 units of automatic power factor controllers that can compensate for 100 kvar of reactive power are installed, the power transmission loss can be reduced by 10,000-12,000㎾. This is equivalent to the construction of a single medium-sized power plant. Considering that the cost of producing an automatic power factor adjuster is much less than the cost of constructing a power plant, the economic benefits of introducing this adjuster nationwide would be very significant. We should actively develop and introduce the Korean-style reactive power compensators to maximize the savings and effective use of the electricity produced.

Reporter: Do you think that the responsibility and role of officials should be further strengthened in this project?

Director: Of course. As in all other economic activities, the responsibility and role of our officials is crucial in the effort to maximize the conservation and effective use of the electricity produced. We can only achieve success if our officials push this effort forward until we see results from the firm perspective and position that it is an important patriotic project for themselves, the country, and the people.

All sectors and units of the people’s economy should vigorously develop the struggle for maximum conservation and effective use of the electricity produced, so as to conclude this significant year in a bright way and make a positive contribution to economic development and the improvement of people’s lives. (End)