Commercial Electrical Facilities Double in One Year... Impact of Carbon Neutrality Policy

Ministry of Industry Announces '2021 Electric Facility Inspection and Check Results'

Shinan Solar Power Complex located in Shinan, Jeonnam.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Lee Junhyeong] As the government’s carbon neutrality policy has increased renewable energy power generation facilities, the number of commercial electrical facilities has more than doubled in the past year.

According to the "2021 Electrical Facility Inspection and Check Results" announced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 16th, the total number of electrical facilities last year was 26.48 million, a 3% increase compared to the previous year. Commercial electrical facilities increased from 18,531 units in 2020 to 37,261 units last year, more than doubling in one year. Compared to 2019 (7,974 units), it increased nearly fivefold. It is interpreted that the government’s carbon neutrality policy influenced this, as renewable energy power generation facilities increased by 16.8%.

General electrical facilities last year were 25.93 million units, up 2.8% from 25.21 million units the previous year. General electrical facilities increased by 1.45 million units over the past two years, from 24.48 million units in 2019 to 25.93 million units last year. This is a result of social and environmental changes such as the increase in single-person households.

Private electrical facilities numbered 517,000 units, increasing 6.6% from 485,000 units the previous year due to the expansion of renewable energy power generation facilities and electric vehicle charging facilities. Private electrical facilities increased by 71,000 units over two years from 446,000 units in 2019 to 517,000 units last year.

Inspection and examination results of electrical facilities by usage over the past three years.
[Photo by Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy]

The failure rate of electrical facilities continued to rise. Last year, the failure rate of pre-use inspections for electrical facilities was 9.6%, up 0.4 percentage points from 9.2% the previous year. During the same period, the overall failure rate for pre-use and regular inspections increased by 0.3 percentage points from 2.4% to 2.7%. The number of electrical facility inspections and checks last year was 9.79 million.

The failure rate of electrical facilities in multi-use facilities decreased. Safety inspections of 21,531 multi-use facilities last year found 1,321 failures. The failure rate was 6.1%, down 2.9 percentage points from 9% the previous year.

Last year, facilities rated as caution (C) accounted for 8.3% of 812,187 electrical facilities with safety grades. Warning (D) and hazardous facilities (E) accounted for 1.2% and 2.4%, respectively. Emergency backup power generation facilities are essential for ensuring the safety of building users in emergencies, but the failure rate of regular inspections slightly increased from 7.5% in 2020 to 7.6% last year. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is promoting institutional improvements to strengthen inspections by electrical safety managers for emergency backup power generation facilities and to expand the scope of safety inspections.

Meanwhile, the number of electrical facility safety managers last year was approximately 70,000. Among them, 54,353 were resident safety managers. Proxy safety managers and Korea Electrical Safety Corporation personnel numbered 15,040 and 517, respectively.

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