Energy Development
In the context of the official visit to Chile of South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) is making inroads into the Latin American energy market in earnest.
KEPCO announced on April 28 that it visited four Latin American countries – Columbia, Peru, Chile, and Brazil – from April 16 to 25 and signed a total of seven Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) in the nuclear energy, smart grids, new renewable energy, and electric power distribution sectors.
On April 24 (local time), KEPCO signed an MOU with Brazil’s Eletrobras and Electronuclear with the heads of both countries at the presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, for cooperation in the nuclear power plant area.
Under the agreement, both countries will cooperate to develop new nuclear power plants, to build and operate these nuclear power plants, and to develop new nuclear power generation technologies in the future.
Eletrobras is the parent company of Electronuclear and the largest state-owned electric power company in Brazil. Electronuclear is the company that is ordering the new nuclear power plant project, and is planning to build 4 to 8 nuclear power plants by 2030.
Previously, KEPCO signed an MOU with a U.S. solar power company for the joint development of solar power generation in Chile and an MOU with the Chilean Foreign Investment Committee (CIE Chile) for the investment in power generation at the “Korea-Chile Energy MOU Signing Ceremony” held in Santiago, Chile on April 22.
Accordingly, KEPCO has secured the network to develop the market in Chile, in which the country opened the electric power market for the first time in the world, and established a foundation to expand into the Latin American markets.
On April 20 it signed an MOU with the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru and its state-run power distribution company, respectively, at the Sheraton Hotel in Lima, Peru. Under the agreements, they will exchange not only general information in the power generation field but also technologies in the distribution automation, automatic meter reading, and smart grid fields. Also, they will cooperate in the discovery of new energy businesses and a demonstration project to construct the smart distribution network.
Moreover, KEPCO signed an MOU with Colombian Intelligent and IPSE, respectively, at Quesasa Convention Center in Bogota, Colombia on April 17 for cooperation in the electric power industry. The MOU includes the exchange of relevant information about the overall electric power industry, including the smart grid field such as smart grid stations, micro grids, and mutual cooperation.