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| People cross the street at Yeouido, central Seoul, amid the first heat wave of the year, Friday. Temperatures hovered around 32 degrees Celsius on this day. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Korea's per capita electricity consumption set a new record of 10.2 megawatt hours (MWh) last year ― 3.3 percent higher than the previous year and higher than neighboring Japan and European Union countries France and Germany ― according to a recent report by the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO).
The biggest increase came from household use as residential buildings consumed 72,895 gigawatt hours (GWh) of power, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier due to longer air conditioning use from the record-breaking heat wave that sent temperatures soaring over 40 degrees Celsius in some regions last year, and killed dozens of people.
Summer is getting longer and more intense each year in Korea, which once prized itself on having four distinct seasons. Spring and autumn temperatures last only a few weeks now. The weather agency recorded the first "tropical night" in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, last weekend, a month earlier than last year. Tropical nights refer to evenings where the temperature does not drop below 25 degrees Celsius.
In its recent three-month forecast, however, the Korean Meteorological Administration said there is a high chance this year's heat wave will be relieved by heavy rains due to atmospheric factors.
But climate change is just one factor. Household use takes up just 13 percent of the total consumption. Industrial consumption at factories, on the other hand, accounts for over half. Some experts say industrial energy consumption currently makes up an oversized portion of the total due to low energy efficiency.
The average annual electricity consumption in Korea has been ticking steadily up for two decades. In 2000, per capita consumption was just 5.1 MWh, half the 2018 figure, according to the KEPCO data.
Some attribute the consumption spike to the nation's low electricity charges in comparison with other OECD member nations. Neighboring Japan charges twice that of Korea for household energy and 1.5 times higher for industrial energy, the data showed.
Electricity consumption per capita has leveled out or fallen in other developed nations. In neighboring Japan, energy consumption per capita has stabilized around 8 MWh, according to the most recent International Energy Agency data. France, too, has kept the figure down around the same level. Korea surpassed both nations around 2008 in per capita consumption. The developed nations that maintain higher per capital energy consumption figures than Korea are Canada, the U.S. and a handful of Scandinavian and Middle Eastern countries.
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