Gwangju Nam-gu Wins Grand Prize in Korea Energy Agency Contest Evaluation

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (District Mayor Kim Byeong-nae) announced on the 9th that it won the grand prize in a contest hosted by the Korea Energy Agency by promoting the nation's top-level energy efficiency improvement and support projects to eliminate the energy welfare blind spots of vulnerable groups.

Nam-gu received the honor of winning the grand prize at the '2020 Energy Voucher Best Practice Contest Awards Ceremony' held in the Electric Hall, Songpa-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the same day, by actively promoting the energy voucher support project that allows vulnerable households in the district, such as basic livelihood security recipients, to purchase electricity, city gas, briquettes, and more, thereby realizing universal energy welfare.

Nam-gu's energy voucher issuance rate in 2019 reached 104.4%, which is recognized as the highest level nationwide.

In fact, last year, Nam-gu issued energy vouchers to a total of 3,041 households by additionally identifying vulnerable households in the energy sector through the Happy Welfare 7979 Center and the Community Social Security Council.

This figure is 129 households more than the 2,912 households initially classified as eligible for energy voucher issuance based on the support conditions of the Korea Energy Agency. The Korea Energy Agency evaluated that Nam-gu's proactive efforts to realize energy welfare led to this excellent outcome.

The housing environment improvement project for energy efficiency of vulnerable households was also a driving force behind winning the grand prize.

Last year, Nam-gu invested a total of 1.1 billion KRW to support 2,333 vulnerable households exposed to heat waves and cold waves by providing free boiler replacements, cooling supplies such as fans and cool mats, and conducting insulation and window replacement projects. It plans to invest an additional 2 billion KRW by next year to continue related projects.

Additionally, throughout last year, Nam-gu actively promoted a project to replace existing lighting devices with energy-efficient LED equipment (2,734 units) in 125 low-income households and social welfare facilities, receiving favorable evaluations.

District Mayor Kim Byeong-nae said, “I feel a special sense of accomplishment as our district office’s energy welfare projects have achieved the best results nationwide,” and added, “We will carefully check if there are any other neighbors left in the energy welfare blind spots and continue to carry out administration that embraces and serves everyone with a humble attitude.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.