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Asia / Island & remote community

Deokjeok Island

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations8
System facts16
Sources reviewed7
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The legacy record conflates three different Deokjeok Island efforts: the physical KEPCO island grid, a large KT-led 'energy-independent island' proposal announced in 2015, and a tiny KICT research hybrid at Urumsil village. The last detailed whole-island inventory found describes a diesel-dominant 6.9 kV system with 2.9 MW diesel, 169 kW PV, 63 kW wind and no battery. The proposed 500 kW PV/1.5 MW wind/6 MWh ESS project did not progress after a tariff-rule change damaged its economics.

Research status
Mixed identity, with the large project stopped before construction. Reporting in 2018 said none of the five 2015 Korean energy-independent-island projects, including Deokjeok, had formed an SPC or advanced after the 2016 tariff change. A 2021 peer-reviewed study provides the latest authoritative physical inventory of the existing diesel/renewable grid, while the small Urumsil research installation was monitored in 2016-17. No source through the research cutoff verifies that the proposed utility-scale ESS was built or that the experimental village equipment still operates.
Historical classification
Island
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
37.22891, 126.15557
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Deokjeok Island?

8 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Incheon Metropolitan City / Ongjin County

Local-government planning and community partners for the proposed island program and research activities. [4][6]

Organization

KEPCO

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)

Operator/utility associated with the island's existing isolated distribution and diesel system. [2]

Organization

Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT)

Developer/researcher of the separate small Urumsil village hybrid renewable system. [6]

Organization

KT

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

KT consortium

Selected private consortium for the 2015 energy-independent-island proposal; the project later stalled before an SPC/build. [3][4][5]

Organization

Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

National program sponsor that selected the Deokjeok consortium. [3]

Organization

NEDO

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

Existing whole-island diesel
2.9 MW from three 300 kW and four 500 kW generators. [2]
Existing whole-island renewables
169 kW PV plus 63 kW wind (eleven 3 kW and three 10 kW turbines), with no ESS in the surveyed system. [2]
Existing network and load
6.9 kV, 60 Hz isolated grid with two radial feeders and normally open ties; approximately 1,900 kW maximum, 1,190 kW average and 700 kW minimum load, averaging 28,554 kWh/day in the study data. [2]
Existing energy mix
About 3% annual renewable penetration in the study, with roughly 2.56 million litres/year diesel consumption and diesel providing the overwhelming majority of electricity. [2]
Unbuilt 2015 proposal
Planned 500 kW PV, 1.5 MW wind and 6 MWh ESS over 2016-18 at a projected KRW17.8 billion. These are proposal values, not installed equipment. [4][5]
Urumsil research hybrid
Components described as two 1.5 kW vertical-axis wind turbines plus 3 kW PV, a 6 kW arithmetic total, with battery storage and pumped-water loads. The same publication inconsistently calls it 24 kW in one passage; no defensible 24 kW equipment breakdown is given. [6]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Whole-island diesel fleet

Model not publicly disclosed

Three 300 kW and four 500 kW generator sets; engine/generator OEMs and models are not given in the grid study. [2]

02

Whole-island PV and wind

Model not publicly disclosed

169 kW PV and fourteen small wind turbines totaling 63 kW; exact module, turbine and inverter models are undisclosed. [2]

03

Urumsil wind turbines

Model not publicly disclosed

Two 1.5 kW Darrieus vertical-axis turbines using NACA0015 blades; 3 m blade length, 2 m rotor diameter, 3 m/s cut-in, 13.5 m/s rated wind speed and 300 rpm rated speed. [6]

04

Urumsil PV/storage

Model not publicly disclosed

3 kW PV tilted 30 degrees, battery bank and inverter feeding AC loads; battery chemistry, kWh and equipment vendors were not disclosed. [6]

05

Proposed equipment

Model not publicly disclosed

The planned 1.5 MW wind/500 kW PV/6 MWh ESS package never reached a verified installation; no final OEM selection should be inferred. [4][5]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • General

    Configuration: WT+ PV+ ESS + EMS + Geothermal [1]

  • Physical grid topology

    Buk-ri and Seopo-ri radial feeders have normally open interconnection points; modeling evaluated sectionalizing and optimal renewables/storage, but modeled configurations are not as-built assets. [2]

  • Project failure mechanism

    A 2016 change linked island electricity purchase prices to oil prices rather than a fixed tariff, undermining private-project economics. By late 2018 the selected Deokjeok consortium had not established an SPC or proceeded. [5]

  • Urumsil control

    Wind acted as the master renewable source; power flowed through battery/inverter stages to village experimental loads including pumping, and the research monitored performance in 2016-17. [6]

  • Conflation warning

    The grid paper's optimized high-renewables scenarios are simulations, not construction evidence. The archive's NEDO/geothermal attribution is also unsupported by the project-specific sources reviewed and should not be presented as installed electric generation. [2][7]

Provenance

7 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2020-07-05

  2. [2]
  3. [3]
    Energy self-reliant island private operators selected

    Government of the Republic of Korea · Primary source

  4. [4]
    Incheon energy-independent island implementation plan

    Incheon Metropolitan City · Primary source

  5. [5]
  6. [6]
    Hybrid Renewable Energy System in Urumsil Village, Deokjeok Island

    IntechOpen / KICT researchers · Primary source

  7. [7]
    Recovered Deokjeok Island project record

    Internet Archive / Microgrid Projects · Archived source

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