Gokseong-gun Opens KTC Industrial High-Voltage DC Equipment Testing Center

A Leading Hub for High-Voltage DC Equipment Certification

Raising Expectations as Korea's First Dedicated Testing and Certification Center for DC Equipment

Essential Facility Driving Green New Deal for Electric Vehicles, Signaling Changes in

[Gokseong=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] On the 13th, Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, announced that it held an opening ceremony for the Industrial High-Voltage Direct Current Equipment Testing Center (hereinafter ‘Center’) in Yeonhwa-ri, Osan-myeon.

The opening ceremony was attended by Gun Chief Yoo Geun-gi, Jeollanam-do Deputy Governor for Political Affairs Yoon Byung-tae, Director Jeong Jong-young of the Product Safety Policy Bureau at the National Institute of Technology and Standards, and Je Dae-sik, President of the Korea Testing Certification Institute (KTC). However, to prevent COVID-19, residents were excluded from attendance, and the number of guests was minimized for a small-scale event.

The Center was established by the Korea Testing Certification Institute (hereinafter ‘KTC’) to foster the direct current industry, a core sector of the next-generation power market.

Construction began in 2017, with a total project cost of 38 billion KRW (23 billion KRW from the national government, 4 billion KRW from Jeollanam-do, 4 billion KRW from Gokseong-gun, and 7 billion KRW from KTC).

The project covers a site area of 29,623㎡ with a total building area of 7,818㎡ (3 floors above ground), equipped with key facilities such as a 250MVA DC short-circuit testing facility, AC/DC load switching testing facility, and AC/DC temperature rise testing facility.

It is the first in Korea capable of performance testing for industrial direct current equipment and components over 1000V.

With the opening of the testing center, the KTC Honam Power Evaluation Center, the nation’s top accredited comprehensive testing and certification institution, has also relocated to Gokseong-gun and commenced full-scale operations.

This enables the acquisition of advanced testing and certification capabilities at the level of developed countries, with professionalism, safety, and reliability.

Gokseong-gun expects significant changes in the regional economic and industrial landscape with the opening of the Center.

Following the Moon Jae-in administration’s Green New Deal and Jeollanam-do’s Blue Economy vision, the importance of the electrical and power-related industries is expected to increase.

Industrial direct current equipment refers to devices that use or control direct current power applied in various industries. Representative examples include DC circuit breakers, DC switches, DC converters, protective equipment, distribution panels, cables, and switches.

Direct current equipment has recently gained more attention as its applications have rapidly increased in fields such as digital devices, electric vehicles, data centers, and energy storage systems.

By directly utilizing DC generated from solar power, fuel cell power generation, etc., without converting it to AC, power loss can be reduced, enhancing efficiency and competitiveness.

The global market for DC equipment is projected to reach 48.4 billion USD (approximately 56 trillion KRW) by 2027, and the domestic market is expected to grow to 3.5 trillion KRW by 2025.

Additionally, DC has the advantage of controllable power flow, allowing it to be linked with distributed power sources such as renewable energy and digital-based small independent power grids (microgrids).

Moreover, since the global high-voltage DC equipment industry is still in the early stages of commercialization, whoever secures the market first can become a leader in the Digital New Deal and Green New Deal.

Until now, Korea has lacked domestic institutions for DC equipment testing, evaluation, and certification, relying on overseas institutions. For high-voltage DC circuit breakers, overseas testing costs average about 60 million KRW per case, with a duration of over three months.

With the establishment of the Center in Gokseong-gun, it is expected to save 50 billion KRW annually in overseas testing costs and enable multifaceted support such as developing standard testing methods, R&D for domestic companies, testing and evaluation, and global market entry.

This is also expected to create synergy effects with Jeollanam-do’s core industries such as large-scale offshore wind power, solar power generation, secondary batteries, and RE100 by securing technological competitiveness in domestic DC equipment and component parts.

Furthermore, KTC, together with Gokseong-gun and Jeollanam-do, will proceed with the second phase of the testing center project this year, the ‘High-Voltage Cable International Mutual Certification Evaluation Infrastructure Construction’ project.

The total project cost is 14.4 billion KRW, aiming to establish testing and evaluation facilities and spaces for EHV (Extra High Voltage) grade cables and wires.

By building an internationally competitive power equipment specialized testing complex, it aims to continuously support domestic energy companies’ overseas certification and exports.

At the opening ceremony, Gun Chief Yoo Geun-gi stated, “With the opening of the Center, our county and KTC have formed a partnership,” emphasizing that the two organizations will become strong partners for a new leap forward and share a future of mutual growth.