Korea to widen heat energy rules and write AI water plant standards

South Korea's environment ministry said Monday it will widen the definition of heat-source energy and open more sites to solar and private dam-area projects, part of a deregulation package aimed at raising the domestic water industry to the regulatory level of its competitors abroad.

The plan, drawn up with the government's Regulatory Reform Committee, centres on rules the ministry says have drifted from conditions on the ground and held the sector back. It will move quickly to amend the relevant statutes and keep checking for further obstacles.

The most concrete change concerns heat-source energy, which current enforcement rules under the renewable energy law limit to surface seawater and river water. The ministry plans to extend the category to sewage and discharged groundwater, with the exact scope to be set by the minister of climate, energy and environment.

Solar installations at drinking-water source protection zones would be permitted more broadly. Onshore projects would be allowed where agricultural cooperatives or residents' cooperatives in protection zones build and run them and the projects contribute to local income; floating projects would be open to water-surface managers such as local governments, the Korea Water Resources Corporation, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Korea Rural Community Corporation, provided residents take part.

Dam-adjacent environmental projects would likewise be opened to private operators. Current law permits only local governments and the water resources corporation to run them directly. The ministry will create a legal basis for sale, lease and entrusted management, with the scope, procedures and criteria to be set through a revision of the enforcement decree.

A separate strand of the package targets water treatment plants run by artificial intelligence. The ministry said it will add a clause to the water supply law covering the operation of AI treatment plants, establish certification and evaluation systems and general standards for design, construction and operation, and push for an international standard from the International Organization for Standardization.

Korea is the only country operating a treatment plant with AI applied to every process. The United States, through its Environmental Protection Agency, and Japan, which has written a basis for autonomous AI operation into its water supply law, along with the EU, have some government-level institutional arrangements, but Korea lacks general design, performance-verification and operating standards, the ministry said.

The ministry said it will pursue the follow-up legal changes promptly.