First O&M Project in South America

KEPCO KPS employees and local workers of a combined cycle power plant in Punta del Tigre, Uruguay, shout out “Way to go!” at a ceremony marking the start of the plant’s commercial operation.

KEPCO KPS, a company specializing in maintenance of power plants, will operate and maintain a power plant in Uruguay for up to eight years.

The Korean company will provide long-term operation and maintenance (O&M) services for the combined cycle power plant in Punta del Tigre, Uruguay, which has been recently completed.

The O&M project is the first of its kind that KEPCO KPS carries out in South America. The company looks to earn 17 billion won in sales every year for maximum eight years, including an option period.

Furthermore, KEPCO KPS has signed a long-term service agreement with Siemens for the maintenance of the plant’s gas turbines, which were supplied by the German company. The agreement is expected to generate additional sales worth about 12 billion won for KEPCO KPS at each preventive maintenance service (every three years) for each of the two gas turbines.

KEPCO KPS has carried out long-term O&M projects in the Asian and African markets including India, Pakistan, Jordan and Madagascar, but it conducted only short-term projects in the Latin American market such as the test operation of the Termotasajero II power plant in Colombia.

This long-term O&M project in Uruguay is therefore significant in that KEPCO KPS has gone beyond the Asian and African markets and entered the O&M market in Latin America for the first time.

“In the trial operation of the Punta del Tigre plant, the rate of standby electricity generation exceeded 98 percent. We expect that the plant will contribute to stabilizing unstable power supply in Uruguay,” said a KEPCO KPS official, adding “This accomplishment will earn us the trust of the Uruguay National Administration of Power Plants and Power Transmissions (UTE), which will help us establish a bridgehead to expand our presence and diversify our business in Latin America.”

The Punta del Tigre plant is a combined cycle power plant with a total output of 531 MW (two gas turbines with a power output of 171 MW and a steam turbine with a power output of 189 MW), which represents about 25 percent of the total power consumption of Uruguay.

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