Rep. Lee Chan-yeol of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) said on Sept. 7, “Since 2011 Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has invested in four businesses, whose combined losses total a whopping 575.2 trillion won.”
KEPCO-Uhde, a joint venture between KEPCO and Germany’s UHDE in the field of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), has continued to make losses since its inception in 2011.
KEPCO-Uhde posted a net loss of 280 million won in 2011, 1.35 billion won in 2010, 1.09 billion won in 2013, 820 million won in 2014 and 760 million won in 2015.
Intellectual Discovery, an IP management company, logged a net loss of 6.3 billion won in 2011, 7.9 billion won in 2012, 12.6 billion won in 2013, 7.8 billion won in 2014 and 5.4 billion won in 2015.
KEPCO Alstom Power Electronics Systems (KAPES), in which KEPCO invested 5.6 billion won in 2012, made a net loss of 600 million won in the first half of this year alone. Rep. Lee criticized: “KEPCO has continued to rip off the public and siphon the money into its loss-making subsidiaries. In the end, taxpayers are squeezed for their tremendous amounts of losses.”
