韩国政府细化五大发电子公司合并方案，但不设裁员或降本目标

The government will merge South Korea's five power generation subsidiaries — Korea South-East Power, Korea Southern Power, Korea East-West Power, Korea Western Power and Korea Midland Power — and assign 25% of the combined workforce to newly created regional renewable energy units. Because the plan sets no separate targets for streamlining staffing or finances after the merger, critics say the public-sector overhaul amounts to only half a reform.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment disclosed the detailed plan at a briefing on the restructuring of state-run power companies held on the 4th at KEPCO's South Seoul regional office in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul. The five companies currently employ about 2,400 people at their headquarters, of whom 1,800 will move to the combined headquarters. The merged office will house four divisions: renewable energy, just transition, planning and management, and safety technology. The government plans to introduce a special law to create the merged entity. Once the bill clears the National Assembly, a merger committee will be formed and the launch process will take about 10 months. The combined entity will remain a KEPCO subsidiary under the basic framework.
For the location of the merged headquarters, the government will keep open both the option of expanding one of the five existing headquarters buildings and the option of selecting a third site. A ministry official said the location will be decided through consultations among labor, management and government in connection with the second round of public institution relocation, adding that the government will consider links with major power utilities, the impact of the just transition and living conditions in the area.
The remaining 600 or so employees will be spread across regional renewable energy units to be established in three or four zones. The renewable energy division at headquarters will handle large projects such as utility-scale solar plants and offshore wind, while the regional units will be responsible for expanding small-scale distributed generation in their areas.
The decision to set up regional renewable energy units of 150 to 200 people each appears to reflect concern about a backlash from Busan, Ulsan, Jinju in South Gyeongsang Province, Taean in South Chungcheong Province and Boryeong in South Chungcheong Province — the current headquarters locations — depending on where the merged headquarters ends up. If regional renewable energy units are placed in the Yeongnam and Chungcheong regions, two of the existing headquarters buildings can continue to be used. The regional organizations of the five power companies, which employ a combined 11,000 or so people, will be maintained as they are for now. In effect, apart from part of the headquarters staff, the workforce structure of the five companies will see little change.
Experts broadly agree that such a simple merger will struggle to produce synergy. Son Yang-hoon, a professor of economics at Incheon National University, said it is hard to find a global precedent for reassembling state-owned companies that were separated because restructuring was needed. "As the entity gets bigger, it is hard to see where management efficiency would improve, while the only thing created is the possibility of monopolistic control of the market," the professor said. An industry official said the friction that often arises between KEPCO and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power despite their parent-subsidiary relationship could be repeated between KEPCO and the merged generation company.
The government's position is that neither the power company merger nor its broader public institution consolidation plan assumes workforce restructuring or cost efficiency. An official at the Ministry of Finance and Economy said the approach differs from the past. "This is aimed at raising competitiveness through convergence among institutions in order to respond to the artificial intelligence transformation and compound crises, not at taking issue with inefficiency or lax management at public institutions," the official said. Asked about the scale of cost savings from the consolidation, the official said no separate estimate was made because the policy itself is not focused on cutting costs.
Kim Tae-yoon, a professor of public administration at Hanyang University, criticized the plan. "The fact that the merger plan is labeled a 'diet' yet contains no measures to raise efficiency or cut costs is a flaw of irresponsible bureaucracy and political sloganeering," the professor said. "On top of that, there is no vision to reduce budget spending or create new public services, so it is hard to understand what the consolidation is for." The professor added that a range of additional costs arise during consolidation, from relocating employees to replacing signage, and asked what the reason is for spending such money if the public cannot enjoy more efficient services.