Why a monthly agency fee and salary are not comparable by themselves
A Korean owner or occupier of a private-use electrical installation may first see only an agency retainer and a qualified employee’s salary.
A complete comparison also needs travel, extra inspections, owner oversight, transition and filing work, loaded employment cost, training, instruments, calibration, and temporary cover during leave, illness, dismissal, or vacancy.
This calculator places those items on one timeline and compares nominal and present-value total cost of ownership.
Korea-specific legal boundary
This page applies Korean rules checked on August 12, 2026.
A capacity result of `within` is only a preliminary screen under Enforcement Rule Article 26, not a finding that outsourcing is lawful.
The tool does not establish the appointment duty, qualifications, registration, jurisdiction, the provider’s full assigned portfolio, the number-of-sites limit, or the minimum inspection frequency.
Delegation, small-installation agency service, and in-house appointment
Professional delegation
Electrical Safety Management Act Article 22(2) permits delegation to a qualifying electrical-safety-management specialist or facility-management specialist.
The delegate appoints the required safety manager, so this structure is not automatically the same as periodic small-installation agency service.
Agency service
Article 22(3) allows KESCO, a registered agency business, or a qualifying individual agent to manage specified private-use and renewable installations below the Enforcement Rule scale limits.
This calculator’s capacity screen addresses that route.
In-house appointment
Article 22(1), Enforcement Rule Article 25, and Attached Table 8 govern appointment.
The manager normally works continuously at the installation site and cannot be appointed to another site, subject only to listed exceptions that this tool does not decide.
Confirm which legal structure is actually proposed before normalising prices.
A full-time manager supplied under a professional delegation contract, a registered agent making prescribed visits, and the owner’s own qualified employee can have different legal, staffing, response, and reporting arrangements even when vendors use similar commercial language.
2026 preliminary Article 26 capacity limits
The current Enforcement Rule is law ID 014058, MST 287605, promulgated June 29, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026.
Article 26 uses strict “less than” boundaries, so an installation exactly at 1,000 kW does not fall within a 1,000 kW band.
Korean electrical safety management preliminary per-installation outsourcing limits| Installation | Registered agency business / KESCO | Individual agent | Condition |
|---|
| Electric receiving installation | Less than 1,000 kW | Less than 500 kW | Review Article 25 appointment exclusions separately |
| Solar generation | Less than 1,000 kW | Less than 250 kW | With remote monitoring: less than 3,000 kW or 750 kW |
| Electric-business fuel cell | Less than 500 kW | Less than 250 kW | Remote monitoring and control required |
| Other generation | Less than 300 kW | Less than 150 kW | Electric-business renewable installations require the remote condition |
| Emergency standby generation | Less than 500 kW | Less than 300 kW | Special bracketed limit within other generation |
The aggregate cap applies beyond the sites entered here
When one provider manages multiple installations, the registered agency business or KESCO category is limited to a total below 4,500 kW, while an individual agent is limited to a total below 1,550 kW.
The calculator multiplies the selected per-site capacity by the selected site count, but it cannot see other customers or installations already assigned to that technical employee or agent.
Obtain the current assignment record and written confirmation before signing.
How to build a like-for-like cost baseline
Outsourced proposal
- Sites, installations, and equipment covered by the monthly retainer
- Scheduled visits, remote monitoring, emergency callout, and after-hours response
- Shutdown attendance, construction review, precision or additional inspections, and test-equipment charges
- Travel, records, reporting, and appointment-filing support
- VAT basis, escalation, renewal, termination, and handover terms
In-house cost
- Salary, bonus, employer cost, retirement accrual, and benefits
- Manager and assistant numbers and qualifications under Attached Table 8
- Course fees, travel, and paid time for mandatory and technical education
- Purchase, calibration, repair, and consumables for required instruments
- Temporary substitute, recruitment, filing, and vacancy coverage
Use one VAT and cash-versus-economic-cost basis for both alternatives.
If input VAT is treated as recoverable and excluded from economic cost, remove it consistently from the outsourced figures rather than mixing a VAT-inclusive quote with VAT-free labour cost.
Costs that arise identically under both options, such as a common statutory inspection or the same physical repair, should be included on both sides or omitted from both sides.
Formulas and result meanings
First-year outsourced recurring cost
Monthly fee × 12 × sites, plus travel per visit × confirmed annual visits × sites, plus annual extra-inspection cost per site and annual owner oversight.
Cost per visit divides this complete recurring amount by total scheduled visits, so it is an allocation metric rather than a vendor’s visit price.
First-year in-house recurring cost
Required manager count × annual loaded cost per manager, plus training, equipment, relief labour, and other non-overlapping annual cost.
Entering salary alone understates the owner’s recurring cost and the economic effect of an uncovered vacancy.
Nominal TCO, present value, and equivalent monthly cost
Each year’s recurring cost equals the first-year amount multiplied by that option’s annual escalation factor.
The model discounts each year-end recurring amount using the user-entered annual discount rate and adds setup cost at time zero.
Present-value TCO divided by the monthly annuity present-value factor produces an equivalent monthly cost that normalises setup and escalation; it is not an invoice forecast.
The break-even monthly outsourced fee is the per-site retainer that makes both present-value TCOs equal while every other input stays fixed.
It can be useful in a negotiation, but it is neither a statutory tariff nor a fair-price conclusion under the engineering-fee method referenced by Enforcement Rule Article 32.
Step-by-step use
- Select the actual receiving, solar, fuel-cell, other-generation, or emergency installation and the proposed provider type
- Enter per-site capacity, site count, remote-monitoring status, and the electric-business renewable flag to view the preliminary screen
- Confirm the appointment duty and outsourcing eligibility with the Korean competent body and provider before changing the two legal-status fields
- Use the Attached Table 9 and contract frequency, monthly retainer, travel, extra-inspection, and owner-oversight inputs
- Enter manager count confirmed under Attached Table 8, loaded annual cost, training, equipment, relief cover, and setup cost
- Check that the horizon, scope, and VAT basis match before interpreting PV TCO, equivalent monthly cost, cost per visit, and break-even fee
- If the PV gap is below 5%, review response coverage, responsibility, staffing continuity, and termination terms before cost
Worked three-year example with no discounting
Assume a registered agency business is being considered for two 400 kW receiving installations, with 12 scheduled visits per site each year.
The fee is KRW 500,000 per site per month, travel is KRW 50,000 per visit, annual extra inspection is KRW 300,000 per site, owner oversight is KRW 1,200,000 per year, and setup is KRW 2,000,000.
The in-house alternative uses one manager at KRW 36,000,000 loaded annual cost, KRW 1,000,000 training, KRW 2,000,000 equipment, KRW 3,000,000 relief cover, and KRW 5,000,000 setup.
Both escalation and discount rates are zero.
Three-year undiscounted electrical safety management worked example| Metric | Outsourced | In-house |
|---|
| First-year recurring cost | KRW 15,000,000 | KRW 42,000,000 |
| Three-year nominal and PV TCO | KRW 47,000,000 | KRW 131,000,000 |
| Allocated cost per visit | KRW 625,000 | Not applicable |
| PV break-even monthly fee per site | About KRW 1,666,667 | Comparison baseline |
The selected aggregate is 800 kW, below both the registered-business per-site screen of 1,000 kW and selected aggregate screen of 4,500 kW.
That arithmetic still does not confirm the provider’s other assignments, jurisdiction, Attached Table 9 capacity, service scope, or legal suitability.
Appointment, filing, and record timeline
Before use
Enforcement Rule Article 25(2) requires the installation- or site-specific appointment to be made before applying for the pre-use inspection or before starting the business.
Appointment or dismissal
Act Article 23 requires reporting without delay, while Enforcement Rule Article 34 requires the prescribed form and supporting documents within 30 days of appointment or dismissal.
Gap coverage
A successor must be appointed within 30 days after dismissal, and a qualifying temporary substitute is needed during travel, illness, or the gap before replacement.
Four-year records
Enforcement Rule Article 36 requires four-year retention of safety training, checks, management rules, and emergency safety-action records.
Practical decision scenarios
Agency contract renewal
Start with the current retainer, then separate the renewal proposal’s travel, additional inspection, remote monitoring, shutdown attendance, and emergency-response scope.
Compare the quoted retainer with the conditional break-even fee and document which scope changes explain the difference.
Recruiting a qualified employee
Replace an advertised salary with the employer’s loaded cost and include recruitment lead time, training, instruments, and coverage for leave or turnover.
Do not assume an existing employee may hold a second-site appointment without confirming the continuous-work and exception rules.
Multiple sites
Group sites only when the selected installation and capacity assumptions are genuinely comparable; otherwise run separate calculations.
Even a low selected aggregate does not prove compliance with the provider’s total portfolio or the site-by-site in-house rule.
Solar and other generation
Do not infer the statutory remote-monitoring condition from a product name alone.
Confirm the installation classification, electric-business renewable status, and actual monitoring and control capability before applying the higher solar band or another remote condition.
Limits and cautions
- The tool does not decide Article 25 exclusions for certain low-voltage manufacturing, late-night-power, suspended, or generation installations of 20 kW or less
- It does not decide Attached Table 8 qualifications, experience, assistant staffing, continuous presence, or multi-site exceptions
- It cannot verify registration, technical personnel, equipment, jurisdiction, total assigned capacity, site limits, or inspection frequency under Attached Table 9
- It does not choose between Article 22(2) professional delegation and Article 22(3) small-installation agency service
- It does not calculate a statutory agency tariff or market average from the actual-cost-plus-fixed-fee method referenced by Article 32
- It does not determine electrical safety, inspection sufficiency, accident probability, insurance, liability, VAT recovery, accounting, tax, or employment-law treatment
Lower cost never authorises a reduced safety scope
Act Article 24 requires faithful performance, respect for the manager’s safety opinion, record keeping, and action when an installation is non-compliant.
A cheaper proposal is not comparable if it omits inspections, emergency response, construction review, records, or the manager’s authority to require corrective action.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sign an agency contract when the screen says `within`?
No. The screen covers selected capacity and limited remote conditions only. Confirm the appointment duty, registration, jurisdiction, full assigned portfolio, Attached Table 9 site and visit limits, and the contract itself.
Does exactly 1,000 kW pass the registered-business receiving-installation band?
No. Article 26 says less than 1,000 kW. Confirm the installation class and another lawful appointment or delegation route with the competent body.
Does this tool calculate the statutory monthly agency fee?
No. Article 32 points to an actual-cost-plus-fixed-fee engineering method, but it does not create one nationwide fixed monthly tariff. Enter an itemised provider quote.
Should in-house cost contain salary only?
No. Add employer cost, retirement accrual, benefits, training, instruments and calibration, substitute cover, recruitment, filing, and non-duplicated support cost.
Can I multiply one site by the number of sites?
The model does that only for a selected group with the same installation and capacity assumptions. The legal aggregate may include other provider assignments, while in-house appointment remains subject to the site rule and listed exceptions.
Why is allocated cost per visit different from a visit quote?
It divides the complete annual retainer, travel, extra inspection, and owner oversight by scheduled visits. Remote monitoring, records, and emergency availability can make it different from a contractual visit price.
Official sources and update basis
The National Law Information OPEN API was checked on August 12, 2026.
The current sources were the Electrical Safety Management Act, law ID 013718 and MST 268805, effective February 1, 2026; its Enforcement Decree, law ID 014047 and MST 282333, effective January 2, 2026; and its Enforcement Rule, law ID 014058 and MST 287605, effective July 1, 2026.
The review covered Act Articles 22 through 24, Decree Article 11, Rule Articles 25, 26, 30 through 34, 36, and 37, Attached Table 8 serial 18243301, and Attached Table 9 serial 18243303.
Recheck the current statute, decree, rule, and attached tables whenever the legal text or installation classification changes.
Act Article 22(3) includes a future-effective notation for April 1, 2028, so maintainers must compare the then-current and future versions before a 2028 update.
Replace every example with verified evidence
Obtain written confirmation of the Korean legal route, then enter an itemised agency quote and loaded in-house cost on one scope and tax basis.
Save the result with the capacity warning, appointment record, provider assignment confirmation, and contract scope so the cost decision remains auditable.