Handuksoo: "A Structure That Encourages Energy Overconsumption... Needs Gradual Normalization"

"Germany Fails to Reflect Energy Costs Compared to Japan"

[Asia Economy Reporters Naju-seok and Kim Young-won] Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced on the 6th that he will push for the ‘normalization’ of the issue where corporate electricity rates are cheaper than wholesale electricity prices.

At the National Assembly’s government questioning session that day, in response to Democratic Party lawmaker Hong Young-pyo’s criticism of structural problems in the energy market, Prime Minister Han said, "Energy is a resource that we must always conserve, and realistically, the most important means to conserve energy is an appropriate price structure that reflects the cost structure," mentioning ‘normalization.’

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He stated, "(Currently, our energy market) has a price structure that is very distorted," adding, "Compared to countries like Germany and Japan, our energy prices have a low structure that does not reflect costs."

Prime Minister Han said, "Our economic structure heavily depends on energy, which encourages overconsumption of energy, so even if it is somewhat difficult for the public, this issue must be well explained to the people while gradually continuing normalization as a very important task," and added, "In this process, I believe we must properly implement policies that appropriately harmonize renewable energy and nuclear power."

Lawmaker Hong pointed out, "The distorted structure of the energy market must be improved," and said, "As of last October, the wholesale electricity price was 250 won, but large corporations with high electricity consumption bought electricity at 108 won," criticizing, "Isn’t it the large corporations that benefit the most by using more electricity?"