Kim Dong-cheol, KEPCO President, "Electricity Rate Normalization Must Be Achieved"

New Year's Address 2024

Kim Dong-chul, President of Korea Electric Power Corporation. (File photo)

Kim Dong-chul, President of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), stated on the 2nd, "It is essential and urgent to adjust the electricity rates, and we must continue to inform the public of this fact while achieving rate normalization."

In his New Year's address, President Kim said, "KEPCO's annual interest expenses this year are expected to be about 3.3 trillion won, which amounts to 9 billion won per day."

He also emphasized the determination to achieve financial improvement goals. He said, "The start of overcoming the financial crisis is to swiftly implement the financial soundness plan and additional measures following last year," adding, "Let us mobilize all possible methods such as asset sales, business adjustments, cost reductions, and revenue expansion to surely achieve the financial improvement goals promised to the public this year as well."

He promised to strengthen overall management competitiveness through corporate innovation. President Kim stated, "It is urgent to innovate the personnel system and compensation structure based on performance and capabilities to inject new vitality into the company," and pledged, "To ensure timely construction of the power grid, KEPCO's core responsibility, we will use the power system innovation measures announced by the government last year as an opportunity to make the power grid construction paradigm more efficient and maximize community acceptance."

President Kim also revealed the implementation plan for the "fundamental change in business structure" announced when he took office in September last year. He explained, "The company plans to establish a mid- to long-term roadmap for each value chain from power generation to sales and actively promote the commercialization of IT-based new energy technologies," adding, "This year, all units up to Barakah Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4 will enter commercial operation, and we will create new revenue streams in overseas transmission and transformation, distribution, and renewable energy sectors."

Finally, President Kim called for change among employees. He urged, "We must objectively reflect on whether our status as a public enterprise is actually blocking our path forward, and whether complacent thinking that 'public enterprises do not fail' has driven us to this point," adding, "We must take the fact that we received a poor rating for four consecutive years in the recent customer satisfaction survey as a stern warning from the public and undergo a complete transformation."

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