Business groups welcome regional industrial electricity pricing plan, urge swift rollout

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other business groups on Wednesday welcomed the government's plan to introduce a regional industrial electricity pricing system aimed at improving the efficiency of the national power grid and promoting balanced regional development.

The new system would add a "regional adjustment charge" as a separate component of industrial electricity tariffs. Under the plan, industrial electricity rates in southern regions would fall by up to about 10 percent from current levels. Rates in the Chungcheong provinces and Gangwon Province would drop by up to about 8 percent, while those in northern Greater Seoul — including the area north of the Han River in Seoul and Incheon — would decrease by up to about 5 percent.

In a joint statement, the business groups said power demand is surging on the back of growth in AI and advanced industries, but that the concentration of electricity consumption in the Greater Seoul area and delays in grid construction are compounding difficulties in managing the national power supply and demand balance.

They added that industrial electricity rates have risen sharply, weakening corporate competitiveness, and expressed hope that the introduction of the regional pricing system and the overall downward rate trend "will help ease the burden on businesses, support industrial growth, encourage corporate investment and advance balanced regional development."

The groups urged the government to implement the system as quickly as possible, saying electricity rates are directly tied to companies' production and investment activities and that the benefits of the policy should reach the industrial sector at the earliest opportunity.

They also called for complementary policies to support balanced regional development — including regulatory reform, improvements to residential conditions and infrastructure expansion — to sustain the system's effects alongside the success of mega-projects and the cultivation of national strategic industries. The groups expressed hope that the regional industrial electricity pricing system would "establish a foundation for activating distributed energy and take root as a successful regime that drives both industrial competitiveness and balanced regional growth."