[Gettyimages Bank]
SEOUL -- The demonstration of mobile charging services for electric vehicles received government approval. The service that utilizes energy storage systems on wheels as mobile chargers can become useful for the emergency charging of electric vehicles with flat batteries or for providing charging systems at residential areas with no charging infrastructure.
Currently, South Korea regulates energy storage systems (ESSs) to be stationary facilities for easy safety maintenance and monitoring. ESSs, which are freight container-sized battery packs, are widely used for storing energy generated by renewable energy generators such as solar power plants or wind farms. South Korea strictly regulates the safety standards of ESSs due to the risk of chemical fire that is hard to put out.
As of 2020, there were some 830,000 registered clean energy vehicles and about 20,000 EV chargers were installed in public facilities. Some apartment buildings have two or three chargers but the EV charging infrastructure is not enough. It's not easy for companies to commercialize mobile electricity supply services because there was no safety operation standard or law regulating mobile ESS facilities.
On December 30, the Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy approved the demonstration of EV charging services using ESS wheels through a regulatory sandbox policy that exempts regulations on new products or services for a certain period of time before commercialization. The green light came because many residential areas lack stationary EV charging infrastructure.
Safety standards will be made before the actual demonstration. Also, the indoor use of ESS on wheels is prohibited to prevent fire.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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