Advancing Fire Safety and Rejuvenating the ESS Industry
Guest Essay on Digital Times, Authored by President Sungil Ahn of KTC.
With growing concerns about global warming and climate change worldwide, the significance of renewable energy sources has never been more evident. In response, governments across the globe are increasing their investments in renewable energy through initiatives like the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the European "REPowerEU" program, and the European Wind Power Action Plan. The United States aims to boost its solar power capacity from 153 GW in 2023 to 375 GW by 2028, while Europe plans to surpass 500 GW of wind power capacity by 2030, up from 204 GW in 2022.
Nevertheless, the variability of renewable energy production due to climate conditions presents challenges to ensuring a stable power supply. ESS have emerged as a solution to this problem. ESS, a battery system that stores generated power for later use, plays a pivotal role in providing a stable supply of renewable energy that fluctuates unpredictably. The global ESS market is projected to grow by over 200%, from $15.2 billion in 2022 to $39.5 billion in 2030.
China and the United States are anticipated to contribute approximately 73% of the global ESS installations by 2030, thanks to their proactive ESS deployment initiatives. While South Korean companies once held a dominant position in the global market with a 55% share in 2020, challenges such as 50 ESS fire accidents since 2017, the expiration of promotional tariffs, and the expansion of Chinese products led to a sharp decline, reducing their market share to 14.8% last year. Despite these challenges, South Korean companies like HD Hyundai Electric, LS Electric, Hyosung Heavy Industries, and Seojin System have been actively pursuing ESS projects, securing significant contracts totaling approximately 780 billion won from 2021 to September 2023.
Both the government and the parliament are actively supporting overseas contracts for domestic companies and working to restore the domestic ESS industry ecosystem. In October of this year, a legislative amendment was passed, incorporating renewable energy electricity storage sales into the "electricity business." This change allows companies to directly sell electricity stored in ESS to consumers after generating it from solar power facilities, fostering B2C electricity transactions utilizing ESS. Additionally, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy unveiled the "Energy Storage (ESS) Industry Development Strategy" on October 31, outlining goals to expand Korea's global ESS market share to 35% by 2036 through the construction of a flexible power system based on ESS. Key strategies include optimizing long-term storage mixes, activating and expanding market-based promotion, developing essential energy storage technologies to secure market leadership, creating industrial foundations, and supporting global expansion.
Strengthening safety management systems is a crucial strategy for revitalizing the domestic ESS industry. The government plans to enhance safety standards for ESS fire safety, improve safety management systems through infrastructure development, and bolster real-time ESS safety management. Ensuring the reliability of ESS technology and safety verification is essential to the collective efforts of the government, parliament, and businesses.
Korea Testing Certification institute (KTC), a globally recognized testing and certification organization in Korea, has been supporting the growth of domestic companies and ensuring public safety by conducting safety and performance tests on small portable batteries, medium-sized EV batteries, and large-scale ESS batteries. Building on these efforts, KTC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, the National Institute of Technology and Standards, Gangwon Province, and Samcheok City, established and operates the ESS Fire Testing Center in Samcheok Fire and Disaster Industry Special Zone, investing a total of 69.8 billion won from government budgets from 2020 to September 2023.
In the past, there were no standardized large-scale fire tests for ESS in Korea, and standards for ESS installation and operation were insufficient. Additionally, the domestic ESS testing and evaluation infrastructure was fragmented by region, preventing simultaneous testing and evaluation of electrical hazards and fire safety for large-capacity secondary batteries. With the establishment of the testing center, Korea now offers a comprehensive solution for testing and certifying fire safety throughout the entire development cycle of secondary batteries and ESS products, with a maximum instantaneous heat generation capacity of 40 MW. To expedite certification acquisition for domestic companies, KTC has obtained KOLAS certification for battery testing, and preparations for international recognition, such as designation as a CB Testing Laboratory (CBTL) by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and designation as a testing facility by TUV Rheinland, have been completed. South Korean companies can now conduct product testing, evaluation, and certification domestically, eliminating the need to send samples overseas and significantly reducing time and transportation costs.
The Testing Center conducts empirical testing of electrical hazard environments and replicates and verifies fire accidents to identify the causes of ESS fires. In the future, the center will contribute to the activation of the ESS industry ecosystem in Korea by developing large-scale fire testing and evaluation standards tailored to the domestic situation, based on global certification standards. Furthermore, it is crucial for the government, businesses, and relevant research institutions to collaborate, focusing on technology development and export promotion, to propel South Korea back into the forefront of the ESS industry.
