By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
The Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has won an order worth $450 million (425.6 billion won) to build a power station and a power transmission system in western Africa, according to the state-run company Monday.
KEPCO President and CEO Lee Won-gul and West African Power Pool (WAPP) Secretary General Joseph Makoju signed the contract at the KEPCO headquarters in southern Seoul.
Under the deal, the South Korean power unit plans to construct a 400-megawatt combined cycle power plant in Maria-Gleta, a free trade zone near Porto Novo, the capital of the Benin Republic. KEPCO will operate the plant for 20 years.
KEPCO will also build a 100-kilometer power transmission line that will link the plant in Benin to a power substation in the southeastern part of Togo.
WAPP, made up of 14 west African countries including Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Benin and Togo, was created to facilitate cooperation in energy use. In 2006, it set up a $4.6 billion long-term master plan to establish a large-scale electricity network.
``Our latest deal is only the beginning of the large-scale project for WAPP,’’ a KEPCO spokesman said. ``We expect to be able to take a leap toward our global business aims if our technological prowess is recognized through this project.’’
KEPCO aims to be the top electric power firm in Asia with annual overseas sales of 3.8 trillion won, or about 8.3 percent of its total sales, by 2015. Its current overseas sales stand at around 200 billion won, or just 1 percent of the total.
KEPCO’s accumulated gains through overseas businesses surpassed 1 trillion won in 2006, with a net profit of about 500 billion won, since it first began operating in foreign countries in September 2002.
Owing to its aggressive approach and improved image abroad, the company has also received orders for overseas power distribution facilities worth $15 million over the past five years.
The company’s overseas businesses have so far been largely focused on power generation and consulting for transmission and distribution for developing and underdeveloped countries.
But KEPCO now intends to diversify its businesses into such areas as mergers and acquisitions and clean development-mechanism emissions trading as well as the construction of nuclear power plants.
Late last month, KEPCO signed a memorandum of understanding with ENKA, the largest construction firm in Turkey, in a move to win an order to build a nuclear power plant there.