The power facility maintenance company puts its operation priority in preventing the abrupt failures of power facilities in advance and seeks to maintain the optimal performance of power facilities at home and overseas
The Korea Electric Power Corporation KPS, or KEPCO KPS (CEO: Tae Sung-eun) provides quality services at class power generation facilities and industrial facilities in the parent company, hydrothermal power plants, nuclear power plants, power transmission converter stations, and special-purpose establishments across the nation. The company aims to maintain a stable supply of electricity, the main artery of the Korean economy, and to take care of power facilities, the essence of South Korea’s national basic industries.
KEPCO KPS has a total maintenance system (TMS) regarding power facilities. The company has been carrying out specialized technology services such as the maintenance of gas turbines and the replacement of nuclear fuel at nuclear power plants through the KPS Gas Turbine Technology Service Center, KPS Nuclear Power Technology Service Center, and KPS Solution Center. The Korean company is also providing full training support to employees by running the KPS Human Resource Development Center and KPS Nuclear Power Education Institute, both of which are geared to nurturing professional, high-quality maintenance manpower.
In particular, the total maintenance service can help detect and solve problems at power facilities in advance because it includes various services such as the diagnosis of power facilities and responsible maintenance. Furthermore, the service seeks to improve performance, contribute to continuing operations, reduce maintenance costs, and increase productivity by helping operate and manage customer power facilities more effectively through the establishment of an after-service and before-service system consisting of specialized experts.
Leading New Growth Engines Overseas
For the past 30 years, KEPCO KPS has accumulated its own unique technologies by maintaining various power facilities for some of the world’s major manufacturers. The Korean company also boasts the master artisan’s spirit of putting forth every ounce of energy into the absolutely perfect maintenance of power facilities. The maintenance company has an after-service system that takes responsibility for customers that have, even if only once, used its service. These are the strong advantages of KEPCO KPS. These strong advantages function as a foothold for KEPCO KPS to grow into a global enterprise with world-class technologies and competitiveness in the field of plant services.
KEPCO KPS first extended its reach to the global market by providing repair work at a thermal power plant in southern Bagdad, an order placed by the Ministry of Electricity of Iraq in 1981. Since then, KEPCO KPS had been in business mainly in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia. Thereafter, KEPCO KPS expanded its business into Southeast Asia by winning a contract to repair the Malaya thermal power plant in the Philippines in 1996. At present, the company has expanded its business into the global market and is actively implementing its overseas projects in 25 countries, including the US, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of South Africa, Madagascar, and Sudan.
The total value of orders received by KEPCO KPS amounted to only US$2 million when it first entered the global market in 1982. However, KEPCO KPS won overseas contracts worth US$100 million and US$150 million in 2007 and 2008, respectively, through aggressive business activities based on the technologies mentioned above. The Korean company also took a giant leap forward by winning overseas contracts worth US$200 million in Southwest Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in 2009, including operation and maintenance contracts for the Ambatovy thermal power plant in Madagascar and the Wardha thermal power plant in India. KEPCO KPS was awarded a US$20 Million Export Achievement Award for this achievement by the Korean government in 2010.
KEPCO KPS is planning to expand its overseas sales revenue to account for more than 40 percent of total sales revenue by 2020. Accordingly, the company plans to focus its business structure on the operation and maintenance of power facilities in overseas markets, instead of the maintenance of power facilities in the domestic market.