KEPCO Plant Service & Engineering (KEPCO KPS) has set up a mid-term managerial strategy called MUV 2013 to become a best provider of general power plant services in the world, a top executive of the company said.
"In 2010, we proclaimed the Vision 2020 to become a global business partner leading the green energy service industry. To back up this ambitious goal, we established the mid-term strategy MUV 2013," said Tae Sung-eun, CEO of KEPCO KPS.
In an interview with the Korea IT Times, Tae said, "Our company will seek to be a top-class global company, place the first priority on customers and market, promote communication and cooperation, and implement social responsibility to achieve the management goal of sustainable growth.
"Through this, we will persistently strengthen our differentiated competitiveness and effectively cope with a rapidly-changing market and customer demands," he stressed.
"Under the strategy, we will strengthen the competitiveness of existing business projects, including hydro and thermal power, nuclear power, and transmission and transformation. In line with this, we will secure price competitiveness through cost saving activities in all areas and offer differentiated services, including function checks and restoration services for the shortest period, to customers," said the top executive.
Noting that KEPCO KPS will develop differentiated business projects by country and region to expand its overseas arena, he said, "We will bolster the hydro & thermal power sector in Southeast Asia, India and Latin America, while strengthening the nuclear field in China, the U.S., Japan and Taiwan.
"Along with this, we will seek equity investment in foreign projects and joint projects with KEPCO in overseas markets based on our advanced engineering technology," said Tae.
The CEO also said that the company selected the nuclear power maintenance support automatization service, the regeneration and manufacture project of GT parts, and development and operation of specialized projects as the new mid-term projects.
"Finally, we will build a strategy-focused implementation system through reform of organization, strengthening of business-related processes and strategic R&D investment to achieve the mid-term goal," said Tae.
New growth engine through overseas projects
Commenting that thorough follow-up service based on its 30-year-long experience of maintenance of various power facilities for major global manufacturers is the merit of KEPCO KPS, CEO Tae said, "We will make the best use of such merit to become a global company armed with up-to-date technology and strong competitive power."
KEPCO KPS advanced into the overseas market in 1981 for the first time by winning the order for the restoration work of a thermal power plant in South Bagdad from the Iraqi government.
Since then, the company expanded its overseas business chiefly in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, and established the business development office in 1993 to enter into the overseas projects in earnest.
It received the order for the restoration work of the Malaya Thermal Power Plant in the Philippines in 1996 and expanded its business to Southeast Asia. Now it engages in a variety of maintenance business for hydraulic generator and pumped storage power plants in some 25 countries, including the U.S., Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of South Africa, Madagascar, and Sudan.
"Thanks to such aggressive business activities based on state-of-the-art technology, the amount of overseas orders we received soared from just $2 million in 1982 to $100 million in 2007 and further to $150 million in 2008. In 2009, the figure skyrocketed to $200 million owing to soaring demands from Southwest Asia, the Middle East and Africa, including the Ambatovy Thermal Power Plant in Madagascar and the Wardha Thermal Power Plant in India," he explained.
"In recognition of our brilliant business performance in foreign countries, we finally won the '$20 million export tower' award from the Seoul government in 2010," he noted.
Provider of high-quality maintenance service
KEPCO KPS is a company specialized in reliable high-quality maintenance of power plant, transmission, substation and industrial facilities.
"The company, established for efficient maintenance of electric power facilities in the country, which is crucial to economic development, has brought greater convenience to the public by developing technology and nurturing experts in the field for the last three decades," CEO Tae said.
Commenting that KEPCO KPS now holds maintenance technologies for hydro, thermal and nuclear power plants that rank with those of advanced countries, he said, "The nation's high utilization of power facilities, which is on par with those of advanced countries such as the U.S. and Japan, attests to this."
He noted, "Korea has a variety of facilities from all over the world, earning itself the reputation of an exhibition for power facilities. Given this reality, it is amazing how we could achieve such high level of self-reliance in terms of technology. We will exert all-out efforts to serve as a major boost for Korea's power generation industry by practicing sustained growth management."
KEPCO KPS has built maintenance records efficiently such as equipment specification, work procedures and facilities history using the MAPS (Maintenance Assister for Power Stations) that is a supporting system of power plant maintenance and it covers all facilities of hydro power plant, for example dam equipment, water intake equipment, waterway equipment and electrical equipment.
"In addition, the company makes assurance for the operation management of power generating facilities by reflecting the analysis of trouble occurred in the past and the result of facilities diagnosis. In particular, it helps to extend the life span of facilities by performing perfect alignment with large alignment equipment that is developed by itself," said Tae.
Futhermore, KPS guarantees stable availability of facilities through the prediction diagnosis maintenance system, the complete operation of planned outage maintenance, the enlargement of scientific process control, systematical education and training.
"In particular, our company is equipped with a total maintenance system about power generation facilities, including the GT maintenance technology center, the nuclear power maintenance technology center, the talent development institute and the nuclear power training institute," he said.
