Huge Deal in Africa
The Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has won a 40 trillion won (US$35.59 billion) deal in South Africa, entering the local electricity market.
The state-run utility firm announced on Oct. 11 that it has been selected as the preferred bidder to build and operate a coal-fired thermal power plant in South Africa by the South African Department of Energy (DoE), allowing it to carry out the first independent power project (IPP) in the nation.
An independent power project (IPP) involves a non-public utility provider in a country building power generators by raising investment funds on behalf of a public utility provider, and then providing and selling energy for a certain period of time to retrieve funds.
KEPCO has formed a consortium with Japan’s Marubeni Corporation for the project, and the consortium owns a total of a 51 percent stake in the project -- 24.5 percent each.
The project is to build a 630 megawatt coal heat power generation plant in the Thabametsi site of Lapalele in Limpopo, a province located 300 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. The consortium led by KEPCO signed a 30-year build, own and operate (BOO) contract with South African state-owned electricity supply company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which allows it to sell all of the electricity.
KEPCO expects to raise about US$35.7 billion (40.13 trillion won) in operating revenue over the period.