The South Korean government said on the 28th it will substantially overhaul rules governing energy storage systems, as Prime Minister Han Seong-sook met with the heads of seven major business groups to discuss regulatory reform. Reflecting the long-term nature of ESS projects, the government will pursue a special exemption extending leases on state- and publicly owned land to at least 15 years from the current 10. "We will immediately lift regulations that can be lifted quickly," Han said.
The Office for Government Policy Coordination announced the measures at the meeting, held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul's Jung district. The government decided to first address ESS rules, saying demand is rising sharply amid the shift to renewable energy while the sector remains subject to unreasonable restrictions. ESS projects require heavy upfront investment and assume long operating periods, but the current 10-year lease limit on state- and publicly owned land has been criticized as too short and a drag on the industry's growth. The government will therefore push for a special exemption extending the lease term to 15 years or more.
The legal classification of ESS containers will also be clarified. Although the containers are not buildings where people live, some local governments have classified them as structures because they have roofs and walls and are fixed to the ground, subjecting them to construction permits and limits on building-to-land and floor area ratios. The government will draw up guidelines on the legal classification of ESS containers by next month to reduce unnecessary administrative procedures.
Requirements for appointing electrical safety managers at ESS projects will also be eased. Electrical equipment with generation capacity below 300 kilowatts can currently have a non-resident safety manager, but ESS operators have faced difficulties because no clear legal standard exists. The government plans to revise the relevant enforcement rules in the first half of next year to allow non-resident appointments.
The government will also revise rules affecting major industrial sites, including semiconductors, electric vehicles and hydrogen. High-pressure gas storage facilities used in chip production have caused confusion on the ground because the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Employment and Labor apply different safety standards on which direction doors must open. The government will unify the standards to allow inward-opening doors at storage facilities where workers are not stationed. For electric vehicles, the government will revise the system so that ownership of the vehicle body and the battery can be registered separately, supporting the spread of new business models such as battery subscriptions and leases.
"We will lift as many regulations as can be lifted quickly, and we will list up and immediately resolve issues that can be settled through interagency consultation or simply by updating existing rules," Han said. "Regulatory rationalization will also proceed according to clear principles and priorities."
The business leaders offered their own proposals. Chey Tae-won, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, suggested creating "two or three testing grounds for regulatory rationalization and experimenting from different angles, which would yield the data we need," adding that "we need to make greater use of artificial intelligence and technology to accumulate that data." Son Kyung-shik, chairman of the Korea Enterprises Federation, said: "Please create a business environment where companies can take on challenges and innovate, based on the principle of allowing first and regulating later, permitting everything except what is prohibited."
