South Korea's power consumption is far higher than that of the world's major economies, a report said Tuesday, pointing to the need to step up efforts to stop the country's waste of electricity.
According to the report compiled by the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI), the nation's power consumption in 2008 was 1.7 times the
average level of the Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD) countries.
The country's electricity usage per one dollar's worth of gross domestic product (GDP) reached 0.580 kilowatt hours (kWh), compared with the average
0.339 kWh of the OECD countries, the report said.
The U.S.'s electricity consumption was 1.06 times the average OECD level with France's 0.97 times the same figure, according to the report.
"Low power tariffs are leading to excessive power consumption," the KDI said. "The power tariffs below the costs are feared to hurt the country's growth potential in the long run."
Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), the supplier of almost all the country's electricity, posted a loss of 815 billion won (US$698 million) during the second quarter, compared with a profit of 240 billion won a year earlier, due to low electricity prices.
The government has kept power tariffs unchanged since June last year to control inflation, although the utility's fuel expenses in the second quarter jumped 34 percent from a year earlier.
The country's energy ministry is set to allow state-run utilities to increase gas and power prices as early as September.