POWER September 2014 - 24

TOP PLANTS
Andong Combined Cycle Power
Plant, Andong, South Korea
Owner/operator: Korea Southern Power Co.
Courtesy: Siemens AG
For a country focused on wooing big businesses, constructing large industrial complexes,
and building new administration offices, having a reliable electricity supply is
vital. But with few natural resources, flexible and efficient generation is imperative.
Aaron Larson
K
orea Southern Power Co. (KOSPO)
CEO Lee Sang Ho has a vision of
making KOSPO into a " global top 10
power company " with the highest possible efficiencies
and the best overall cost reductions
as its core strategies. The Andong combined
cycle power plant (CCPP)-a 417-MW gasfired
plant utilizing Siemens H-class technology-fits
this vision and is a worthy POWER
Top Plant.
The plant was constructed in record
time-only 24 months-through the teamwork
of KOSPO, Siemens AG, and GS
Engineering and Construction Corp. (GS
E&C). Previous projects of this kind had
taken between 30 and 40 months to complete,
but improved planning and timing of
critical component deliveries made schedule
compression possible.
Resource Challenges
Although South Korea has experienced very
rapid economic growth and is currently the
24
eighth-largest trading nation in the world, the
country's natural resources are very limited.
Incredibly, 96% of its energy comes from imports,
a large portion of which is in the form
of oil, coal, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
South Korea is a member of the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD)-a 34-member group
of countries dedicated to global development
that includes many of the world's most
advanced countries as well as emerging
countries like Mexico, Chile, and Turkey.
While the average OECD country has seen
electricity generation remain flat over the
past five years, South Korea's electric generation
has grown 24%. Its ongoing need for
energy is unquestionable.
Like many countries in Asia, South Korea's
energy mix relies heavily on coal, which
accounts for about 45% of its electricity generation.
However, the country is not blind to
the environmental implications of expanding
coal usage, and it has indicated that technolowww.powermag.com
gies
such as integrated gasification combined
cycle with carbon capture and storage are a
priority. Of course, the added expense of utilizing
new technologies reduces coal's cost
benefit when compared to other alternatives.
Nuclear power accounts for a large portion
of electricity generation in South Korea too-
nearly 30% of the supply-but its future is in
question as a result of the Fukushima disaster
in Japan, which has people fearing a similar
type of accident in South Korea.
The government has ambitious targets
for renewable energy, aiming for 12% of
all consumption from renewables by 2027.
However, with economic growth projected
to be the highest of all the OECD nations,
South Korea will likely need to expand its
LNG usage to meet the growing electricity
demand.
Adding to the Mix
The Andong CCPP is located in the city of
the same name in the province of GyeongPOWER
| September 2014
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2014

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