“An annual average of 210,000 households are restricted from using electricity due to non-payment of electricity bills… arrears are also increasing.”

Seungwon Kim “We need to come up with effective measures to ease the burden of electricity bills.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jeong-jin = It was found that the number of households whose electricity use is restricted by the Korea Electric Power Corporation due to failure to pay their electricity bills on time amounts to around 200,000 each year.

According to data submitted by KEPCO to the office of Rep. Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, Small and Medium Venture Business Committee on the 11th, the number of households with current restrictions among residential residential electricity customers over the past three years reached an average of 215,000 households per year.

By year, the number was 219,000 in 2023, 230,000 in 2024, and 198,000 in 2025. From January to August this year, 99,000 households were subject to current restrictions.

The current limit is a measure that limits the use of electricity to a maximum of 475 kWh (kilowatt hours) per month in lieu of power cuts for households that have failed to pay their electricity bills. If general households are delinquent on their bills for more than 3 months, and vulnerable households are delinquent on their bills for more than 6 months, a current limiter will be installed in that household.

During the same period, the burden of delinquent electricity bills also increased.

The number of residential delinquency cases where electricity bills were not paid for more than two months increased by 21.1% from 427,000 cases at the end of 2022 to 517,000 cases at the end of 2025.

During the same period, the amount in arrears increased from 13.7 billion won to 31.8 billion won, and the amount in arrears per delinquent household also doubled from 32,000 won to 62,000 won.

KEPCO operates systems such as welfare discounts and installment payments to support delinquent households, but it is pointed out that blind spots in support should be checked considering that approximately 200,000 households are subject to current restrictions every year.

Rep. Kim said, “The government and KEPCO must come up with effective measures to alleviate the burden of electricity bills.”