Gas Safety Corporation strengthens autonomous safety management with high-performance inspection equipment
Temporary support for 50% of hydrogen quality inspection costs by 2022
[에너지신문] The Gas Safety Corporation will start a full-fledged support for the hydrogen industry by starting a free rental business for inspection equipment for hydrogen charging stations and temporarily providing 50% of the cost of hydrogen quality inspection until 2022.
Korea Gas Safety Corporation (President Hae-jong Lim) announced on the 3rd that it will hold a free rental delivery ceremony for high-performance inspection equipment to ease the burden of safety management costs for hydrogen charging businesses at the Samhan Hydrogen Station in Eumseong, Chungcheongbuk-do.
This project is a project that the Gas Safety Corporation purchases 4 types of essential equipment for safety inspection at hydrogen charging stations (hydrogen gas leak detector, ground resistance tester, thermal image meter, and standard gas injection device) and lends it to a hydrogen charging station free of charge.
This is to support the government’s early achievement of the hydrogen economy and promote it as part of the’Comprehensive Measures for Hydrogen Safety Management’ announced in December 2019.
Accordingly, if a hydrogen charging company wishes to lease inspection equipment, they can receive 4 types of inspection equipment worth about 8 million won free of charge.
The free lease period can be up to 4 years, and it is expected that this will have a great effect in reducing the burden of safety management costs for hydrogen chargers, which are in the red due to enormous initial costs and operational costs, and strengthening their own safety management.
◆Gas Safety Corporation to fully support the hydrogen industry
In accordance with Article 11 of the High Pressure Gas Safety Management Act (Safety Management Regulations), hydrogen charging stations are obligated to perform daily, weekly and monthly inspections to maintain the safety of charging facilities, and must own inspection equipment.
Accordingly, the Gas Safety Corporation conducts a survey on the preference demand of the hydrogen charging industry among the inspection equipment according to the safety management regulations, and among the inspection equipment that a business operator must own, portable hydrogen gas leak detector, ground resistance meter, thermal imaging meter, and standard gas injection equipment are essential. Gas Safety Corporation purchases 4 types of equipment (approximately 8 million won per set) and decides to provide free rental for charging stations that wish to lease.
Gas Safety Corporation is pursuing a number of detailed tasks to build a sustainable hydrogen safety ecosystem in addition to the free rental business of hydrogen charging station inspection equipment centered on the Institute of Hydrogen Safety Technology.
Representative examples are securing inspection reliability of the three core hydrogen facilities (hydrogen charging stations, hydrogen production bases, and hydrogen fuel cell facilities) △Establishment of a permanent safety inspection and safety management support system △Quality inspection fee support for hydrogen charging stations.
In order to secure the reliability of inspection of the three core hydrogen facilities, the Korea Gas Safety Corporation unified the inspection of hydrogen charging stations with the Institute of Hydrogen Safety Technology, and is implementing a risk assessment system that considers surrounding locations in the pre-construction phase of the charging station.
In addition, during the operation of the charging station, precise safety diagnosis and permanent inspection using precision diagnosis equipment will be conducted to prevent operation interruption due to leakage or breakdown in advance. This is to solve the inconvenience of hydrogen car users being unable to recharge and increasing public concerns about safety.
In order to strengthen business capabilities and safety management, the hydrogen charging station construction and maintenance manual, which was produced in the previous year, is expected to be produced and distributed this year after advanced work. In addition, a’real-time monitoring system’ is being built that allows the Gas Safety Corporation and business operators to check the status of major facilities at hydrogen charging stations in real time and take safety measures in the event of an abnormal signal.
The Gas Safety Corporation will also provide temporary support for 50% of the cost of hydrogen quality inspection, which must be inspected every quarter by hydrogen charging stations, until 2022.
Quality inspection is a legal inspection conducted in accordance with Article 18-3 of the High Pressure Gas Safety Management Act to prevent safety accidents caused by the use of low-quality gas.Through the implementation of a hydrogen quality inspection fee support project, annual cost reduction of 2.1 million won per hydrogen charging station The effect is expected.
Hae-jong Lim, president of Korea Gas Safety Corporation, said, “We established the Hydrogen Safety Technology Institute at the beginning of this year and provided a free rental business for high-performance inspection equipment, as well as a project to support hydrogen quality inspection fees, secure inspection reliability of three key hydrogen facilities, and establish a permanent safety inspection and safety management support system. “We hope that the Korea Gas Safety Corporation, an agency in charge of hydrogen safety in Korea, will be able to serve as a safe support for the expansion of the hydrogen economy by making every effort to create a sustainable hydrogen safety ecosystem and strengthen win-win cooperation.”
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