Power Plant in S. America
Kelard Gas-Fired Combined Cycle Power Plant in Chile was completed as Korea’s first private power plant project in South America.
Korea Southern Power Co. (KOSPO) announced on May 28 that it held a ceremony to build the Kela power plant in Mejillones in the north of Chile on May 26 (local time).
Kelar Power Plant is a 517MW-class company, with KOSPO (65%) and Samsung C&T (35%) participating as equity investors. Samsung Engineering carried out engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work while the Export-Import Bank of Korea took charge of project financial.
The project has a business structure in which the Chilean corporation of Australian-based global mining company BHP Billiton supplies fuels for power generation and purchases the full amount of generated electricity. KOSPO expects stable sales of about 92 billion won per annum on average for up to 30 years.
"The completion of the power plant is quite meaningful in that that KOSPO established a foothold to the Chilean power market dominated by global energy companies including those of the United States," Korea Southern Power said. "It will be a good example of cooperation projects between domestic companies in overseas power generation projects in the future."
Based on its experience and know-how accumulated through the Kelar Project, KOSPO will continue to pursue more projects in Chile including solar power projects.