An abundance of coal and water resources has allowed North Korea to build a well-developed electrical power network. North Korea supplied more than 90 percent of the electricity in the Korean Peninsula before partition. The DPRK's energy shortages are both a symptom and cause of its economic malaise. Since the 1970s, the country has increasingly turned to coal as an energy source. Compared with hydroelectrical plants, coalbased thermal plants can be built at locations near industrial and population centers at lower initial costs, require shorter construction time, and are not subject to instability arising from periods of drought.
Thermal plants tend to be less efficient and have higher operating costs.
In the early 1990s, many power plants were under construction, including the T'aech'n power station, in the northwest, reportedly to be the largest hydroelectric plant in North Korea when completed. In addition, thermal power plants such as the East P'yongyang Power Plant and the Hamhung Power Plant were under construction in the early 1990s. The Pukchang Thermoelectric station is located in Pukchang country, South Pyongan province, in the heart of North Korea's coal-producing area. The station is driven by coal, and represents one-half of North Korea's thermoelectric production capacity. But initial plans for a 600,000 kW were postponed by interruption in aid from the USSR following the Sino-Soviet split, and the North Korean settled for a 300,000 kW capacity plant, completed on June, 1971.