Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that the hydrogen power bidding market for 2025 opens today.

The hydrogen power bidding market is a system for purchasing and supplying electricity generated using hydrogen or hydrogen compounds as fuel. It is divided into clean hydrogen power and general hydrogen power categories, depending on the type of fuel used. Only power facilities using fuels that meet Korea’s clean hydrogen certification standard (greenhouse gas emissions of 4 kg CO₂e or less per 1 kg of hydrogen) are eligible to participate in the clean hydrogen power bidding market.

The clean hydrogen power bidding market is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions through power generation using carbon-free clean hydrogen. For 2025, the bidding volume is 3,000 GWh/year (equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of approximately 850,000 households), with a contract period of 15 years. Power generation must begin by 2029 after a three-year preparation period (with a one-year grace period in consideration of the program’s initial phase). Final bidders will be selected around November based on a comprehensive evaluation of both pricing and non-pricing factors, including bid price, clean hydrogen grade, fuel supply stability, and industrial and economic contribution.

Notably, this year’s clean hydrogen power bidding market will introduce two new mechanisms that have been consistently requested by the industry: an exchange rate-linked settlement system and a hydrogen volume borrowing system. Until now, settlements in the clean hydrogen power bidding market were based on fixed prices in Korean won, placing the burden of won-U.S. dollar exchange rate fluctuations on project developers. Starting this year, however, power prices will be linked to the exchange rate at the time of settlement, which is expected to mitigate business risks associated with currency fluctuations.

In addition, alongside the existing hydrogen volume carryover system (which allows unused volumes from the current year to be carried over to the following year), a new borrowing system has been introduced, enabling the use of the next year’s allocated hydrogen volume in advance. This improvement is expected to provide greater flexibility in responding to situations where fulfillment of the contracted generation volume is rendered difficult due to scheduled preventive maintenance and such circumstances.

The general hydrogen power bidding market, aimed at promoting the deployment of decentralized power sources, will offer 1,300 GWh/year in bidding volume in 2025, with a 20-year contract period. Power generation must begin by 2027 after a two-year preparation period. Final bidders will be selected around August through a comprehensive evaluation of pricing and non-pricing factors, including power system impact and industrial and economic contribution.

The bid announcement and more detailed information will be available on the hydrogen power bidding market website of Korea Power Exchange (kchps.kmos.kr) starting at 5:00 p.m. on May 9 (KST).