전력 소비의 용도별 경제적 편익 평가

As electricity is an indispensable input to human's existence and industrial production, economic benefits arise from consumption. The economic benefits of the electricity consumption are useful information in various fields of electricity-related policy. Therefore, this study attempts to value the economic benefits from electricity use. The economic benefit of electricity consumed is the area under the demand curve which made of the sum of the actual consumer expenditure and the consumer surplus. Consumer expenditure can be easily observed but the information on price elasticity of demand is necessarily required to compute consumer surplus. This study derives the estimates for price elasticities through literature review. The price elasticities of the electricity demand for residence, industry, and commercial are estimated to be -0.332, -0.351, and -0.263, respectively. Because the consumer surplus of the electricity consumption for residence, industry, and commercial are computed to be 191.54, 143.44, and 231.91 won per kWh, respectively. Given that average prices of electricity use were 127.02, 100.70, and 121.98 won per kWh for the year 2013, the economic benefit are calculated to be 318.56, 244.14, and 353.89 won per kWh, respectively. We can convert the values to 321.96, 246.75, and 357.67 won per kWh in 2014 constant price, respectively, using consumer price index. They can be used in the economic feasibility analysis of a new electricity supply project.