The electricity sector in Korea is facing complex sustainability issues with recent government energy policy reprioritizing social and environmental concerns over economics. As a response, we developed a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model linked to an energy-system model to assess the sustainability of different policy scenarios in the Korean electricity sector. Our analysis shows that, while the new transition policy is not an attractive option in total cost and emissions, it can be desirable when we consider other aspects. Based on several trade-off analyses among different criteria, the most preferred direction of energy transition is reducing coal. This study, based on realistic policy scenarios, will assist in resolving the sustainability conundrum of the Korean energy sector.

韩国的电力部门面临着复杂的可持续性问题，最近的政府能源政策将经济方面的社会和环境问题重新列为优先事项。作为回应，我们开发了与能源系统模型关联的多准则决策（MCDM）模型，以评估韩国电力部门不同政策方案的可持续性。我们的分析表明，尽管新的过渡政策在总成本和排放方面不是有吸引力的选择，但在我们考虑其他方面时可能是可取的。根据不同标准之间的权衡分析，最理想的能源转移方向是减少煤炭。这项基于现实政策情景的研究将有助于解决韩国能源部门的可持续发展难题。