Sejong City Offers 'Cash Cashback' Equivalent to Electricity Savings

Provided by Sejong City

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Sejong City is promoting a cashback program that returns cash based on the amount of electricity saved.

On the 25th, the city announced that it will implement the "Energy Cashback Pilot Project." Applications for participation will be accepted from January 24 to February 28, and the project will be carried out from February to May. Cashback for electricity savings is expected to be paid in June.

The pilot project is a follow-up measure to the "Energy High-Efficiency Innovation and Consumption Behavior Improvement Plan," reviewed and announced by the Energy Committee in December last year. It aims to encourage the public to reduce energy consumption and change consumption behaviors.

Before launching the pilot project, the city signed an agreement the day before with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Naju City, Jincheon County, Korea Electric Power Corporation, and the Energy Citizens' Coalition to promote the project.

The agreement focuses on ▲ establishing a cooperative system to activate the energy cashback project ▲ discovering and implementing cooperative projects to improve energy efficiency in apartment complexes ▲ joint cooperation among participating organizations in energy-saving education, energy diagnosis, and consulting.

Based on the agreement, the city, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and energy public enterprises will promote the pilot project in the first half of this year, with plans to expand the project nationwide in the second half.

The energy cashback paid through the pilot project serves as an incentive that returns cash based on the amount of electricity saved when participating apartment complexes reduce their electricity usage compared to nearby apartment complexes. The cashback is provided in tiers, ranging from 200,000 KRW to a maximum of 3,000,000 KRW, depending on the amount of electricity saved.

Notably, individual households within apartment complexes can also participate in this project. In this case, if an individual household saves electricity at a rate higher than the average electricity reduction rate of all participating households, they will receive a cashback of 30 KRW per 1 kWh saved.

The city expects that this project will increase local residents' interest and participation in everyday energy-saving practices, such as maintaining appropriate indoor temperatures during winter and turning off unnecessary lights.

Additionally, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy anticipates that if the pilot project participants in Sejong, Naju, and Jincheon reduce electricity usage by 5%, a total of 34 GW·h of electricity can be saved annually. This effect is equivalent to reducing the amount of greenhouse gases generated by producing and disposing of 220 million 500ml PET bottles.

Lee Chun-hee, Mayor of Sejong City, said, "To achieve a carbon-neutral society, it is now time for local governments, related organizations, and individual citizens to form a consensus on energy saving and put it into practice." He added, "Through this pilot project, we hope energy saving becomes a daily habit in the region and that this momentum spreads nationwide, leading to a carbon-neutral lifestyle."