Korea Electric Power Corporation (hereinafter KEPCO) disclosed on the 12th that operating profit on a consolidation basis for the first half of this year (January–June) was 4.9127 trillion won, down 16.6% (976.8 billion won) from the first half of last year (5.8895 trillion won). The rise in international bituminous coal prices pushed up fuel costs.
First-half revenue this year was 46.3173 trillion won, up 0.3% (143.2 billion won) from the first half of last year (46.1741 trillion won).
Most of KEPCO's revenue comes from electricity sales revenue. Electricity sales revenue totaled 43.9641 trillion won, down 0.4% from the first half of last year. The unit price of electricity sales was similar to the first half of last year, but sales volume fell 0.6%.
Operating expense was 41.4046 trillion won, up 2.8% (1.12 trillion won) from the first half of last year (40.2846 trillion won). Operating expense is broadly divided into fuel cost, purchased power cost, and other operating expense.
Fuel costs for subsidiaries in the first half of this year came to 10.1429 trillion won, up 8.8% (817.7 billion won) from a year earlier. Coal power generation increased due to preemptive market stabilization measures, such as raising limits on coal power output, and fuel costs rose as bituminous coal prices climbed.
Purchased power cost from private power producers fell 0.9% (150.9 billion won) to 17.2069 trillion won. Due to substitution effects from increased coal generation, purchases of LNG from private operators decreased, reducing purchased power costs.
Net profit for the same period was 2.7965 trillion won, down 21% (741.6 billion won).
Although it posted a surplus in the first half, liabilities piled up massively during the Russia-Ukraine war when fuel costs surged. As of the first half of this year, liabilities stand at 210.7 trillion won, with 133 trillion won in borrowing fund remaining, leaving it to bear 11.5 billion won a day in interest expense alone.
KEPCO plans to manage electricity rates stably in the second half as well, in line with the government's stance of freezing public utility charges.
A KEPCO official said, "We are closely watching the overall impact on our financial position, including repayment of borrowing fund, payment of interest expense, and securing funding for essential facility investment to support advanced industries," and added, "We will actively cooperate with the government's power market stabilization policies, such as improving the utilization rate of baseload power sources and cutting taxes on generation fuels, to help ease the public's electricity rate burden."