The Kimchi rush in Seoul is set to start one hour earlier. Pic: AP.

Source article in Korean is at this link.

Over 40,000 Seoul city employees are moving their lunch times to 11am as part of a policy to reduce the increase in electricity consumption in winter.

The city announced on January 8th that employees of city hall and of each district office will shift their lunch times from 12 noon to 11am, lasting from January 9th to February 8th. Participation on January 9th and 10th will be voluntary but encouraged.

The coldest winter in decades has seen extremely high energy consumption, three times the previous record, and the measure is intended to combat the upsurge.

The city expects that shifting lunch times by one hour will save up to 18,000 kilowatt hours at a peak hour by enabling reduced computer and lighting use. That would represent 5.3% of all electricity use in Seoul during the peak hour, and is the equivalent of 60,000 fluorescent lights being turned on for one hour.

The city said that, to minimize inconvenience for citizens caused by the change in lunch time and working hours, local citizen service centers will be opened.

Lim Ok-gi, head of the city’s climate and environment office, said that “we hope that the public sector’s move to reduce electricity consumption will be voluntarily followed by the private sector.”