The South Korean government is planning to adopt a pilot system called Vehicle-to-Grid, allowing plug-in electric vehicle owners to sell electricity saved in their car batteries to Korea Electric Power Corp. by the end of this year.

EV drivers will also be able to sell electricity from their energy storage systems to KEPCO by delivering it into the grid, and trade it via KEPCO’s power exchange market, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday.

“The new energy industr

y, in which information and communications technology is converging with the energy business, will be the country’s next growth engine and the main axis of our creative economy,” said Vice Minister of Energy Moon Jae-do during a meeting with officials from the Park Geun-hye administration, academics and private companies. 
The government will revise related laws to spur the efficient use and trade of electricity by EV owners and ESS operators via the V2G program by the end of this year.

The state-run electricity distributor will also design a new price-charging system.

Under the V2G program, EV owners and ESS operators can charge their vehicles and storage systems cost-efficiently.

Since electricity fees are high during the daytime and low at night, EV owners and ESS operators will be able to see a considerable reduction in their electricity bills through the V2G system, a ministry official explained.

Early this month, President Park Geun-hye called on the industry and her administration to come up with more efficient plans to save energy in line with efforts to spur the energy sector.

An association consisting of legal, financial, energy and business experts was formed to support the development of the next-generation smart-grid infrastructure.

“Regulations will be revised to draw maximum investment from the private sector (to realize our smart-grid vision),” said Chae Hee-bong, a ministry director of energy policy.

Korea has looked into smart grids as a solution to energy shortages in an effort to maximize power efficiency.

In 2013, the government announced a vision to boost the domestic smart-grid market to 123 trillion won ($122 billion) by 2030.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)