• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.10-20
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• 2018

Due to cheap electricity tariff on agricultural use, electricity consumption in agricultural sector has grown dramatically. We evaluated the negative effects of the cheap electricity tariff such as electricity over-consumption, increased dependency on electricity, decreased electricity productivity, and unequal distribution of the benefit. We also estimated the effects of agricultral output growth, structural change, and electricity intensity change on sharp electricity consumption increase in agricultural sector between 1998 and 2016 using the Log Mean Divisia Index decomposition method. The findings reinforce the necessity of raising the electricity tariff for agricultural use.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2017

In 2012, Korea introduced a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) scheme, replacing the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme as a market support policy of renewable energy in the electricity market. RPS is to allocate obligatory quota of renewable energy sources for electricity suppliers, whereas FIT is to guarantee high prices for electricity from renewable energy sources. This study examines the effect of this policy change on solar photovoltaic market. According to the study, solar PV market grew fast under FIT as well as under RPS. However, under RPS the size of subsidy for solar PV suppliers was shrunk substantially. In addition, market risk increased severly under RPS due to the volatility of price of renewable energy certificate (REC) as well as of the electricity market price. The small and medium suppliers of solar PV were suffered the most severly from these policy effects. Therefore, the policy reform of RPS is needed to alleviate the market risk of small and medium suppliers of solar PV.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07b
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• pp.800-802
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• 1999

The meters for low voltage customer presently being used in Korea are all mechanical type and there is strict limitation on applying various customized tariff structure. Recently low voltage solid state meter is under development by several makers of the watt hour meter in Korea. Also, KEPCO has a plan to use the solid state meter for low voltage customer to reduce peak power. So, this paper suggests the needed function of low voltage solid state meter considering electricity tariff policy.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.35-56
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• 2006

Korea is implementing strong regulatory derives such as Feed in Tariff to provide incentives for renewable energy developers. But if the government is planning to increase the renewable capacity with only "Price policy" not considering the investors behavior in the competitive electricity market, the policy would be failed. It is necessary system thinking and simulation model analysis to decide government's incentive goal. This study is focusing on the assesment of the competitiveness of renewable energy with the current Feed in Tariff incentives compared to the traditional energy source, specially coal and gas. The simulation results show that the market penetration of renewable energy with the current Feed-in-Tariff level is about 60-70% of the government goal under condition that the solar energy and fuel cell are assumed to provide the whole capacity set in the governmental goal. If the contribution from solar and fuel cell is lower than planned, the total penetration of renewable energy will be dropped more. Notably, Wind power turned out to be proved only 10% of government goal because of its low availability.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.909-930
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• 2022

Although the electricity tariff for each customer class in Korea has an institutional basis which can be linked to cost fluctuations caused by the increase in fuel cost, there is a situation in which it cannot be raised in a timely manner, considering the national economic burden such as inflation. There can be some disagreements about unconditionally raising electricity rates when cost increases occur. It is, however, well known that Korean domestic electricity rates are very low around the world and are in an environment in which rates are not easily adjusted. Moreover, as Korean electricity rates cannot be easily raised due to various factors, domestic electricity rates for each customer class itself have not delivered a desirable price signal for power consumption. Based on historical data such as fuel costs and power production by power source from 2017 to 2020, this study estimated how much power consumption would change if electricity rates were adjusted in 2030 and price signal distortion was resolved. As a result of the estimation, power consumption will be reduced by 9,000 GWh if the current electricity bill is adjusted to a level which can be 100% recovered even with the supply cost alone. This led to a reduction of about 3.82 million CO₂tons of greenhouse gas emissions in the Korean power sector.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.11
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• pp.1415-1422
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• 2018

In Korea, prior to 2011, the electric reserve margin followed the probabilistic reliability view and the planning reserve margin had been operated at about 15% based on the assumption that power outage was permitted within 0.5 days a year. However, after experiencing the shortage of the electric generation capacity in Sept. 15, 2011, the planning reserve margin was selected as 22% to improve the reliability of the electric supply. In this paper, using panel data of 28 OECD countries over the period 2000-2014 we attempted to empirically examine the linkage between reserve margin, electricity tariffs, renewable energy share, GDP per capita, and summer / winter peak-to-peak ratios. As a result, all four independent variables have been significant for the electric reserve margin, and in particular, we found that countries with similar peaks in winter and summer have operated 4.3% higher reserve margin than countries experiencing only summer peak.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.499-520
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• 2020

Input ratio of electricity to other production inputs in the Korean manufacturing sector has been higher than for the other OECD countries. In addition, electricity prices in Korea has been relatively lower than the average of OECD countries. Moreover, electricity sector is responsible for most CO2 emissions in Korea as coal and natural gas account 41.9% and 26.8% of electricity production as of 2018. Therefore, it looks inevitable to raise the electricity tariff for the manufacturing sector in Korea, but there is a concern that increase in the electricity tariff might affect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) more than large firms. This study estimates electricity demand's price and output elasticities for large firms and SMEs in steel industry by employing a time varying parameter model (Kalman filter). The analysis shows that changes in output levels regardless of firms' size affect electricity demands more significantly than do changes in electricity prices. Second, large firms have higher variances for both price and output elasticities of electricity demand. Third, large firms have higher price elasticity but lower output elasticity of electricity demand relative to SMEs. Policy implications are suggested in association with how to reduce electricity demands in the energy-intensive industry.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

The Japanese government has carried out the power industry reform in three phases to supply power stably, control the rise of electricity tariff, and expand consumer choices. The reform of the Japanese electric power industry fosters new kinds of businesses as well as changes the competitive structure in which the enterprises participating electricity business compete. However, for the power industry restructuring to be done smoothly, the accompanying tasks should be carried out. Korea has also been devoting a lot of efforts to cultivate various types of new industries based on the convergence of energy and information and communications technology. If there are the same kinds of new industries between the two countries, the progresses of the industries can be compared to each other over a period of time.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.41-63
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• 2016

Energy policy is known to have higher path dependency among policy fields (Kuper and van Soest, 2003; OECD, 2012; Kikkawa, 2013) and is a critical component of the infrastructure development undertaken in the early stages of nation building. Actor roles, such as those played by interest groups, are firmly formed, making it unlikely that institutional change can be implemented. In resource-challenged Japan, energy policy is an especially critical policy area for the Japanese government. In comparing energy policy making in Japan and Germany, Japan’s policy community is relatively firm (Hartwig et al., 2015), and it is improbable that institutional change can occur. The Japanese government’s approach to energy policy has shifted incrementally in the past half century, with the most recent being the 2012 implementation of the “Feed-In Tariff Law” (Act on Special Measures Concerning Procurement of Renewable Electric Energy by Operators of Electric Utilities), which encourages new investment in renewable electricity generation and promotes the use of renewable energy. Yet, who were the actors involved and the factors that influenced the establishment of this new law? This study attempts to assess the factors associated with implementing the law as well as the roles of the relevant major actors. In answering this question, we focus on identifying the policy networks among government, political parties, and interest groups, which suggests that success in persuading key economic groups could be a factor in promoting the law. Our data is based on the “Global Environmental Policy Network Survey 2012-2013 (GEPON2)” which was conducted immediately after the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake with respondents including political parties, the government, interest groups, and civil society organizations. Our results suggest that the Feed in Tariff (FIT) Law’s network structure is similar to the information network and support network, and that the actors at the center of the network support the FIT Law. The strength of our research lays in our focus on political networks and their contributing mechanism to the law’s implementation through analysis of the political process. From an academic perspective, identifying the key actors and factors may be significant in explaining institutional change in policy areas with high path dependency. Close examination of this issue also has implications for a society that can promote renewable and sustainable energy resources.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.1-34
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• 2008

It is recognized that RPS(Renewable Portfolio Standard) and FIT(Feed-in Tariff) are two main policy instruments to promote Renewable Electricity(RE). The Korean Government announced in 2008 that RE promotion scheme will be changed to RPS from current FIT system in 2012. But we believe RPS is inferior to FIT for promoting less developed technologies such as photovoltaics or wind power. This is because the achievement of RE promotion in countries adopting RPS is markedly worse than that in European counties or Janpan adopting FIT. If the policy change is inevitable, when considering the lessons from Japan's failure as well as supporting the less developed technologies, it is recommended that either the market should be divided into several technology and scale categories, or more RPS-Credit per kWh should be assigned to the photovoltaic and wind power than instead of letting the all technologies compete in the "open category". It is also recommended that (1) Renewable Energy Promotion Fund(tentative name) based on a part of current energy related tax revenue should be introduced, or (2) cost of supporting the Renewable Electricity should automatically be transferred into the electricity bill of electricity consumers following the German System.