“Industrial electricity rates will increase by an average of 9.7% starting from the 24th. In consideration of the burden on the general population, household and general electricity rates will remain unchanged.”
On the 23rd, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a briefing at the Government Complex Sejong, announcing that starting from the 24th, industrial electricity rates will increase by an average of 16.1 won per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
For large and medium-sized enterprises, the industrial electricity rate (Type B) will increase by 16.9 won (10.2%) per kWh, while the rate for small enterprises (Type A) will rise by 8.5 won (5.2%) per kWh. Type B rates apply to contracted power demand above 300 kW, and Type A rates apply to demands below 300 kW. Although industrial customers only make up about 1.7% (approximately 440,000 customers) of the total, they account for 53.2% of the national power consumption.
KEPCO estimates that the rate increase will lead to an annual increase of around 1 million won for small enterprises using Type A, and about 110 million won annually for large enterprises using Type B electricity. The industry expects KEPCO’s electricity sales revenue to increase by approximately 4.7 trillion won annually.
However, the accumulated deficit for KEPCO rose to about 41 trillion won during the period from 2021 to 2023 due to selling electricity at a loss during the spike in international energy prices prompted by the Russia-Ukraine war. KEPCO’s debt increased to 203 trillion won in the first half of the current year, leading to calls for an urgent increase in electricity rates to normalize operations.
This marks the first rate increase in about a year since last November. At that time, KEPCO also froze household electricity rates due to inflation concerns and only increased industrial rates. KEPCO stated that the increase aims to minimize the burden on citizens while preventing further deterioration of KEPCO’s financial structure, emphasizing that it is unavoidable for maintaining essential power infrastructure and network expansion.