Korea Gas Safety Corporation (President Hae-jong Lim) announced on February 24 that it will be implementing a hydrogen quality inspection fee support project to ease the burden of safety management costs for hydrogen charging businesses.
The fee support project was promoted as part of the’Comprehensive Measures for Hydrogen Safety Management’ announced in December 2019, and the Gas Safety Corporation temporarily covered 50% of the cost of hydrogen quality inspection from February 22 to 2022 for hydrogen charging station operators. Support.
The hydrogen quality inspection system is a legal inspection conducted in accordance with Article 18-3 of the High Pressure Gas Safety Management Act, and was introduced to prevent accidents caused by the use of low-quality gas. According to the law, it must be inspected once a quarter, and the fee is about 1.05 million won including VAT.
When a business operator pays 50% of the inspection fee (approximately 528,000 won) when applying for a quality inspection, the Gas Safety Corporation will receive the hydrogen quality inspection using the amount paid by the business operator and the project budget for the purpose of establishing a hydrogen safety foundation. After the reception is completed, the department in charge collects a sample and conducts an inspection.
Through this project, it is expected to reduce costs by 2.1 million won per year per hydrogen charging station. In addition, it is possible to achieve great effects, such as easing the burden of hydrogen chargers on initial investment, operating costs, and safety management costs, and strengthening their own safety management through fee support.
Meanwhile, the Gas Safety Corporation is pursuing a number of detailed tasks to build a sustainable hydrogen safety ecosystem in addition to the hydrogen quality inspection fee support project centered on the Institute of Hydrogen Safety and Technology.
A typical example is the hydrogen charging station inspection equipment rental business. This is a business that the Gas Safety Corporation purchases a gas leak detector, a ground resistance tester, a thermal imager, and a standard gas injection device, which are essential equipment for safety inspection at a hydrogen charging station, and lends it to a charging station for free.
The rental business is scheduled to be implemented in March of this year, and will contribute to reducing the equipment purchase cost of hydrogen charging stations and strengthening the autonomous safety management system for operators.
We will also promote various projects to strengthen business capabilities and safety management. The hydrogen charging station construction and maintenance manual produced last year will be upgraded and distributed to contractors and charging stations this year.
In addition, a real-time monitoring system for hydrogen charging stations is under construction so that the status of major facilities at the hydrogen charging station can be checked in real time and an emergency response system can be established when an abnormal signal occurs.
Hae-jong Lim, President of Gas Safety Corporation, said, “We will make every effort to create a sustainable hydrogen safety ecosystem through business support programs and strengthen win-win cooperation between Gas Safety Corporation and business operators.” “Based on the hydrogen safety ecosystem creation project, We hope that our construction can serve as a safe support for the diffusion of the hydrogen economy.”