"Since Sweden introduced regionally differentiated electricity pricing in 2011, populations in rural cities with cheaper rates have grown by up to 11%, and university students have flocked to these areas."
Hwang Gyu-cheol, head of the Jeonnam Green Energy Research Institute in South Jeolla Province, made the remarks during a policy lecture at the 2026 Energy Strategy Forum held at the Shilla Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday. "The need for local production and local consumption of energy is growing to overcome the limitations of centralized energy systems, and Sweden's case is worth studying," Hwang said.
According to Hwang, South Korea's current system of transmitting energy produced in rural areas to the Seoul metropolitan area, where demand is concentrated, carries risks including massive transmission grid construction costs and the possibility of large-scale blackouts. Building a local production-local consumption framework — where renewable energy generated in a region is consumed within that region — has been cited as a solution, but experts say policies such as regionally differentiated pricing must accompany it.
