Agricultural Electricity Tariff Increases and Changes in Electricity Demand : Decomposing Customer Accounts, Contracted Capacity per Account, and Electricity Use per Unit of Contracted Capacity

This study examines changes in agricultural electricity demand during Korea’s stepwise tariff increases between 2021 and 2024. We combine monthly electricity sales by municipality and customer class for 2017–2024 with statutory tariff schedules. Using a fixed municipal sample, total agricultural electricity use is exactly decomposed into customer accounts, contracted capacity per account, and use per unit of contracted capacity. Between December 2020 and December 2024, total use increased by 1.5%. Customer accounts and contracted capacity per account increased by 10.9% and 1.2%, respectively, whereas use per unit of contracted capacity decreased by 9.6%. Comparisons with residential and general-service electricity show a similar combination of account growth and declining use intensity. These results demonstrate that limited aggregate change can conceal substantial and offsetting changes in demand composition. These findings highlight the value of distinguishing changes in the contract base, contracted capacity, and utilization when interpreting agricultural electricity demand during tariff adjustments.