The Korea Electric Power Corporation ( KEPCO ) is to make its record facility investment of 5 . 5 trillion won ( or $ 4 . 78 billion ) next year . The state - run company has decided to early execute half ( 63 percent ) of this in the first half next year . Given that the South Korean government has decided on a continuous operation of emergency economic system and early budget execution until the first half next year , such a decision by KEPCO , one of major public companies , is interpreted as their strong willpower to take the lead in the government ’ s recent move . According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Monday , KEPCO has recently briefed the government on its plan to enlarge next year ’ s facility investment by 5 . 3 percent from this year to 5 . 4762 trillion won . The figure has only summed up facility investment -- investment into thermal power plant and nuclear power plant mainly executed by subsidies are independently calculated . By sector , the communication facility business is to see a substantial increase in investment to post 371 . 4 billion won -- up 62 . 6 percent from this year . Such an increase is due to investment into smart grid to be made on the full - fledge level from next year . “ We plan to invest 240 billion won in establishing smart grid infrastructure by 2030 under aims of occupying relevant technologies of a renewable energy electric power system and forming a global standard . ” Investment into an electric power transmission and distribution , holding a majority portion of the entire investment , amounts to 5 . 1048 trillion won -- 2 . 7 percent larger than a year ago . Meanwhile , KEPCO seeks to newly recruit a total of 490 employees next year including 390 youth interns . [ written by Hyeok - hoon Jeong , Yong - byeom Park - Eun - jung Kim / edited by Jae - yoon Jung ] [ ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk . co . kr , All rights reserved ]