The government decided to reduce national energy consumption by 9.3% compared to the standard demand forecast (BAU) by 2024 and to improve the energy unit by 13%. BC standard demand refers to the amount of demand when the current consumption trend continues due to no additional demand reduction efforts, and the energy unit refers to the amount of energy input per 1 million won of gross domestic product (GDP).
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on August 19th that it had confirmed the “6th Basic Plan for Rationalization of Energy Use,” which contained these targets by holding the Energy Committee. This plan corresponds to the execution strategy of the demand sector of the energy master plan, the highest plan in the energy sector. The planning period is five years from this year.
In this plan, the government decided to reduce the final energy consumption, which is expected to reach 1940.7 million TOE (oil equivalent tonnes) in 2024, to 176.55 million TOE. In addition, it proposed a goal of reducing the energy unit, which is an index of energy use efficiency, from 0.108TOE to 0.094TOE in the same period. This is an ambitious target that raised the consumption reduction target by 2.3 times compared to the 5th plan (2013~2017). The 5th plan decided to reduce energy consumption by 9.3 million TOE (4.1%) compared to BAU (2277.5 million TOE), but it failed to achieve the goal by increasing 2.5 million TOE (1.1%) again.
Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo said in the Energy Commission that this basic plan is "to support the settlement and spread of energy conversion in terms of demand, and to proactively respond to climate change and the 'post-corona era.'"
In the basic plan, the 'energy efficiency target system' is introduced for businesses that consume more than 2,000 TOE of energy per year, and the 'energy supplier efficiency improvement system' (EERS) introduction, etc. In addition, it included the installation of intelligent power meter (AMI) replacement for 5 million apartments by 2022, introduction of average fuel efficiency standards and tire efficiency rating system for mid- to large-sized vehicles, and expansion of funding and tax support for energy efficiency improvement investment projects.