'Emergency Generators' in Buildings to Replace Diesel with Fuel Cells... Seoul City to Start Research Project Next Month

Increased Reduction of Air Pollutants and Fine Dust Emissions by Replacing with Fuel Cells... Emergency Power Supply and Continuous Power Supply to Surroundings

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 27th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will start a research project in May to replace emergency generators, which are mandatory in every building in the city and mostly diesel generators that emit a large amount of air pollutants and fine dust, with fuel cells.

Currently, emergency generators are required by the Fire Services Act and national construction standards to be internal combustion engines that burn fuels such as diesel or gas generators, and most are installed as the cheapest diesel generators.

Since the nationwide rolling blackout in 2011, the government has been encouraging the operation of emergency generators in buildings to stabilize power supply and demand during increased electricity usage in summer and winter. Currently, most emergency generators are diesel generators, which emit a large amount of air pollutants and fine dust.

In particular, Seoul has a large number of buildings, with diesel emergency generators installed and operated at about 6.4GW (equivalent to the capacity of six nuclear power plants) across all buildings in the city. Converting these to fuel cells could significantly reduce the emission of air pollutants and fine dust, allow continuous operation, and be utilized as distributed power sources for Seoul’s energy self-sufficiency.

Accordingly, Seoul plans to conduct related research to enable the installation of fuel cells, which emit no air pollutants, as emergency generators. The research will objectively document the necessity by analyzing related regulatory amendments, technical standards, and the effects on environmental, economic, and industrial sectors, and will promote institutional improvements.

Furthermore, in collaboration with the fuel cell industry, Seoul plans to develop and demonstrate fuel cell prototypes for emergency generators. Once institutional improvements and product commercialization are completed, the city intends to mandate that a certain percentage of emergency generators in newly constructed buildings be installed as fuel cells, thereby inducing investment in the fuel cell industry and revitalizing related industries.

Um Eui-sik, Director of Environmental Energy Planning at Seoul City, explained, “Compared to efforts to phase out old diesel vehicles for environmental improvement, the current system that allows emergency diesel generators in buildings has not received much attention. Utilizing fuel cells as emergency generators is expected not only to improve air quality but also to reduce relative greenhouse gas emissions and enable 24-hour power generation, providing safer emergency power supply and contributing to national power supply stability.”

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