Electric car chargers will likely be available at telephone poles across the country soon, a state-run power company said Wednesday.

Korea Electric Power Corp. said it is currently developing electric car chargers that can be installed at telephone poles. Once developed, about 30,000 telephone poles near parking lots will be equipped with the chargers. There are about 9 million telephone poles across the country. 

The idea for the “telephone pole charger” was brought up by a KEPCO employee in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, in January when the company held a competition among workers. The actual product development kicked off in May.

“This is the world’s first attempt to utilize telephone poles to install electric car chargers,” said the company.

The product will consist of five components -- a charger connectable with the car, an electric vehicle charger control system, a measuring instrument for current loading, a LED lighting and a black box.

The product will offer three types of charging -- full charge for six hours, half charge for two hours and quick charge for up to 30 minutes. The charging rate will be same as that of current electric car charging stations.

KEPCO anticipates that the new product will drastically expand electric car infrastructure once it is introduced to the market, as installing chargers at telephone poles does not cost as much as original chargers.

Costs have been the biggest challenge for the company in expanding the system, as additional costs were required to purchase land.

KEPCO is gearing up to install the telephone pole chargers in four spots in Gimhae on a trial basis by the end of this year.

By Lee Hyun-jeong  (rene@heraldcorp.com)