Ruling Party and Government "Additional 24 Million KRW Cooling Cost Support per School... Household Electricity Bills Reduced by 20%"

Energy Voucher Recipients Increase from 840,000 to 1.13 Million Households
Support Amount Raised from 40,000 to 43,000 Won

The ruling party and the government have decided to provide an additional cooling cost subsidy of approximately 24 million KRW per school this summer to prevent 'steaming classrooms.' The energy voucher program for vulnerable groups will also see an expansion in both the number of beneficiaries and the amount of support.

On the 27th, Park Dae-chul, chairman of the Policy Committee, announced this decision at a party-government meeting held at Yunjung Elementary School in Seoul, attended by Kim Ki-hyun, leader of the People Power Party, other party leaders, and officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Education. In his opening remarks, Leader Kim said, "The deficit of Korea Electric Power Corporation was so large that electricity rates were raised, but even while raising rates, we thought it necessary to reduce the burden on low-income and vulnerable groups and created various support policies."

The average annual electricity bill per school this year is expected to be 68 million KRW. However, the currently allocated average electricity bill per school is 52.55 million KRW, and an additional 24 million KRW will be provided according to the increased electricity demand for cooling during the summer, expanding the total to 76.5 million KRW per school. Chairman Park emphasized, "this will allow for somewhat more flexible use of electricity costs such as cooling fees," adding, "approximately 530 billion KRW will also be provided to metropolitan and provincial offices of education to replace aging cooling facilities."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, the Ministry of Education allocated 332.4 billion KRW to metropolitan and provincial offices of education this year to cover public utility rate increases. Accordingly, these offices are supporting cooling costs at schools to prepare for heatwaves through supplementary budgets and other means.

The ruling party and government also introduced measures to ease the cooling cost burden for vulnerable groups and social welfare facilities. First, the energy voucher support target will be expanded from the current 857,000 households to 1,135,000 households, and the support amount will be increased from 40,000 KRW to 43,000 KRW. Additionally, welfare facilities used by socially vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and the disabled will receive up to 500,000 KRW in additional cooling cost support for July and August.

For ordinary citizens and the middle class, the upper limit of the progressive electricity rate tiers will be expanded to reduce the burden of electricity bills. Chairman Park said, "We expanded the upper limit of the progressive electricity rate tiers for July and August, when electricity consumption is high due to increased cooling demand, to reduce the burden of electricity bills," adding, "As a result, household electricity bills are expected to decrease by up to 20%."

The reward level for the 'Energy Cashback' program, which provides incentives based on electricity savings, will also be increased to a maximum of 100 KRW per kWh starting in July. Accordingly, for a family of four, if electricity consumption is reduced by 10% compared to last year, they will receive an additional 3,440 KRW per kWh; for a 20% reduction, 8,600 KRW; and for a 30% reduction, 12,900 KRW will be refunded.

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