Economics
Some South Korean Households Are Paying More Than Factories For Power
- S. Korean households face higher power costs amid summer heat
- Industries get lower per-unit rate under decades-old policy
This article is for subscribers only.
It’s not the searing heat sweeping across South Korea that’s keeping Park Hana awake at night, but the cost of electricity she’s using to keep cool.
The 31-year-old says she dreads receiving “poktan” utility receipts at her 83-square-meter home in Gyeonggi province, using the local word for bomb, as the air conditioner roars to shield her toddler from one of the worst heat waves in the North Asian nation. Park’s household is among those paying more per unit of power than factories, under a program started during the mid-1970s to encourage then-fledgling industries.