1. Reasons for Amendment

This amendment aims to improve and supplement a number of shortcomings of the current system such as improving the equipment requirements for electric vehicle charger manufacturers, etc., and alleviating the validity period for verification/re-certification of portable chargers among electric vehicle chargers in accordance with the development of related technologies from four years to seven years, as the awareness that it is necessary to guarantee fair opportunities even to new business operators and lower the entry barriers is spreading as the public's interest in fairness is growing.

2. Major Provisions

A. Alleviate the equipment standard requirements for manufacturers, etc. (Attached Table 3)

Since voltage and current standards for inspection equipment that a person who intends to manufacture electric vehicle chargers or electricity metering equipment must have for the registration of meter manufacturing, etc., are high, it acts as a barrier to new entry, such as starting a business, this amendment aims to alleviate the requirements as long as manufacturers have only the voltage and current inspection equipment suitable for a product to actually manufacture.

B. Clarify qualification requirements for the type approval and verification personnel (Attached Table 8)

In compliance with the opinion of the Korea Ministry of Government Legislation that it is necessary to clarify the temporal sequence of association between multiple requirements such as qualifications/educational backgrounds and practical experience among the qualification requirements for the approval/inspection personnel, this amendment clarifies that careers after acquiring qualifications/educational backgrounds are recognized as in the current operating cases.

C. Supplement the equipment standard requirements of type approval institutions, etc. (Attached Table 9)

Since, with the advent of super-fast chargers, the scope of the Technical Standards for Electric Vehicle Chargers has been expanded so that even 1,000 V-class products can be certified (revised in February 2020; Notice No. 2020-017 of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy), this amendment raises the equipment standard requirements of type approval institutions to test and certify the chargers to the same standard.

D. Alleviate the validity period for verification/re-verification of portable chargers (Attached Table 13)

Among electric vehicle chargers, the validity period of verification/re-verification for portable chargers was set to four years, which is less than that of fixed chargers, considering vibration/shock during transportation. As a result of the recently conducted portable charger durability test, however, there has been no failure for more than 10 years, so it is judged to be an unnecessary and discriminatory regulation. Therefore, this amendment aims to alleviate the verification/re-verification period of portable chargers to seven years, the same as for fixed chargers.

E. Improve the criteria for calculating the validity period of meter re-verification (Attached Table 13)

Since the calculation of the validity period of re-verification is stipulated as the 1st of the month following the date of completion of re-verification, most meter users apply for re-verification in the month when the validity period of re-verification expires. So, this amendment aims to improve the problem of concentrating re-evaluation applications at a specific time by allowing that the existing expiry date is maintained if a re-verification is received within three months of the expiry of the validity period.

F. Provide term provisions for a supplementary member of the Specialized Technical Committee (Article 12 (6))

It aims to establish the basis in the Enforcement Decree and increase the term of supplementary members to two years considering other similar committees, as pointed it out by the Korea Ministry of Government Legislation that the provision of the term of a supplementary member in the Regulations on the Formation and Operation of the Specialized Technical Committee (Notice No. 2018-110 of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) has no basis in statutes.