Peak load rate(i.e., maximum daily flow/average daily flow) has not been considered for industrial water demand planning in Korea to date, while area unit method based on average daily flow has been applied to decide capacity of industrial water treatment plants(WTPs). Designers of industrial WTPs has assumed that peak load would not exist if operation rate of factories in industrial sites were close to 100%. However, peak load rates were calculated as 1.10~2.53 based on daily water flow from 2009 to 2014 for 9 industrial WTPs which have been operated more than 9 years(9-38 years). Furthermore, average operation rates of 9 industrial WTPs was less than 70% which means current area unit method has tendency to overestimate water demand. Therefore, it is not reasonable to consider peak load for the calculation of water demand under current area unit method application to prevent overestimation. However, for the precise future industrial water demand calculation more precise data gathering for average daily flow and consideration of peak load rate are recommended.