The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (hereinafter KERI, Acting President Yoo Dong-wook) has been designated as the nation's first testing and certification institution for eco-friendly electric ships, and is set to contribute to preventing explosions and fires through safety testing of battery cells and modules, and to realizing carbon neutrality in marine and fisheries.

KERI announced on the 10th that it has recently been designated as the first domestic testing and certification institution to inspect the performance and safety of battery cells and modules installed in electric propulsion vessels.

The government has announced the so-called '2030 Korean Greenship (Greenship-K) Promotion Strategy' to achieve carbon neutrality by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from eco-friendly ships by up to 70% compared to existing ships by 2030 and increasing the conversion rate of eco-friendly ships from the current 1% to 15%.

Electric propulsion vessels operate by driving propulsion motors using electricity stored in batteries or supplied by generators, rather than using engines. As with recent electric vehicles, the battery is the key to safety in electric propulsion vessels. Batteries, which contain energy, pose a risk of ignition and fire due to negligence in various environments, including constituent materials, chemical reactions, charging, management systems, and storage methods. In particular, since ships contain large-capacity batteries, the process of testing and certifying safety in advance is extremely important.

In order to expand eco-friendly ships in accordance with the government's plan to achieve carbon neutrality, the need arose to designate an accredited institution to perform safety testing and certification for such electric propulsion ship batteries, and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries recently designated KERI as the first official testing and certification institution in Korea after a rigorous review.

KERI, the world's leading internationally accredited testing and certification body for power equipment, has successfully conducted mechanical, environmental, and electromagnetic compatibility tests on numerous devices and facilities for 45 years since its establishment in 1976, and has established a highly reliable testing and certification ecosystem based on world-class professional personnel and infrastructure.

In the electric ship and battery sector, KERI is a leading testing and certification institution that established the infrastructure for the first electric ship land test station (2015) and battery fire safety test station (2016) in Korea. In particular, it has been externally recognized for its advanced technological capabilities and know-how by conducting numerous safety assessments on electric vehicle and ESS battery fires that have been occurring in succession recently.

Kim Sung-kook, a senior engineer at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), stated, “Battery testing requires highly specialized testing technology because it involves dangerous explosions and fires, and the type approval standards for marine batteries are currently the strictest among domestic and international standards.” He added, “With KERI being designated as the nation’s first testing and certification institution, it is expected that domestic marine battery manufacturers will be able to drastically reduce the testing period and costs for product development by nearly half compared to existing levels.”

Going forward, KERI plans to strengthen its internal capabilities through continuous research and development based on various data accumulated during the battery testing and certification process, while establishing a testing environment that can be of practical help to companies, thereby accelerating the expansion of eco-friendly electric ships and contributing to the realization of carbon neutrality in the marine and fisheries sector.

Meanwhile, KERI aims to become the only institution in Korea capable of testing secondary batteries in all currently commercialized fields, including establishing the nation's first 'large-capacity redox flow battery for power storage' testing and certification center at its Gwangju Regional Headquarters by February 2022 (headed by Principal Researcher Seung-wook Um).