Jeonnam Province Opens 'Industrial High-Voltage DC Equipment Testing Center'

Laying the Foundation for Next-Generation Power Industry Cluster Development

Expectations to Lead Energy New Industry Digital and Green New Deal

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] A foundation has been laid for the creation of Jeonnam Province's next-generation power industry cluster.

Jeonnam Province announced on the 13th that it has opened the "Industrial High-Voltage Direct Current Equipment Testing Center" built in Yeonhwari, Osan-myeon, Gokseong-gun to foster the direct current industry, a core sector of the next-generation power market.

The opening ceremony was attended by Yoon Byung-tae, Jeonnam Province Deputy Governor for Political Affairs; Yoo Geun-gi, Gokseong County Governor; Jeong Yong-young, Director of Product Safety Bureau at the National Institute of Technology and Standards; Je Dae-sik, President of the Korea Testing Laboratory for Machinery, Electrical and Electronics; Yoon Gap-seok, President of the Korea Construction Living Environment Testing Institute; and Shin Soon-sik, Vice Chairman of the Korea Electrical Industry Promotion Association.

The newly opened testing center was constructed on a 29,623㎡ site with a total floor area of 7,818㎡ over three above-ground floors, with a total project cost of 38 billion KRW, including 23 billion KRW in national funds, 8 billion KRW in local funds, and 7 billion KRW in private investment, from 2017 to this year.

This testing center is equipped with advanced direct current dedicated full-cycle testing and evaluation facilities that can assess not only the performance but also the safety and reliability of high-voltage direct current equipment at a level comparable to advanced countries.

With the relocation of the Honam Power Evaluation Center of the Korea Testing Laboratory for Machinery, Electrical and Electronics, the nation's top accredited comprehensive testing and certification institution, to Gokseong, full-scale operation of the testing center has begun.

Recently, the fields using direct current, such as digital devices, electric vehicles, data centers, and energy storage systems, have been rapidly increasing.

If direct current produced by solar power, fuel cell power generation, etc., is used directly without converting it to alternating current, power loss due to conversion can be reduced, thereby improving power efficiency and industrial competitiveness.

The province expects that if direct current capable of power flow control is linked with distributed power sources such as renewable energy and digital-based small independent power grids (microgrids) established within the province, it will lead the digital new deal and green new deal in the energy new industry sector.

The global market for direct current equipment is expected to grow to 48.4 billion USD (approximately 56 trillion KRW) by 2027, and the domestic market is projected to reach 3.5 trillion KRW by 2025.

Globally, the high-voltage direct current equipment industry is in the early stages of commercialization, with active research and development underway to secure global market dominance; however, there has been no domestic testing, evaluation, or certification institution for direct current equipment, leading to reliance on overseas institutions.

For high-voltage direct current circuit breakers, overseas testing costs average about 60 million KRW per case, with a duration of over three months.

With the establishment of the first domestic direct current dedicated testing and evaluation center, annual overseas testing costs of 50 billion KRW can be saved, and multifaceted support such as the development of standard testing methods, research and development and testing and evaluation of domestic companies, and global market entry has become possible.

Along with this, securing technological competitiveness in domestic direct current equipment and component parts, and synergy effects with Jeonnam Province's core related industries such as large-scale offshore wind and solar power generation, secondary batteries, and RE100 are also expected.

Yoon Byung-tae, Jeonnam Province Deputy Governor for Political Affairs, said, "The opening of this testing center, which will provide one-stop support for the entire process from research and development to certification of direct current equipment, has laid the foundation for creating a next-generation power industry cluster," adding, "We will do our best to attract investment from related companies by continuously expanding infrastructure and providing customized support for companies, as well as linking with KEPCO, the Energy Industry Convergence Complex, research and development special zones, and regulatory free zones to secure national competitiveness."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.