On October 13, Doosan Enerbility announced that it had signed an agreement with a prominent U.S. technology company to provide two units of Doosan’s 380MW gas turbines.
The two gas turbines are to be delivered by Doosan Enerbility by the end of next year.
By winning this contract, Doosan Enerbility secured its first overseas export deal for its gas turbines.
In 2019, Doosan Enerbility had in collaboration with parties from the domestic industry, academia and research sectors succeeded in the local manufacturing of a large-scale gas turbine for power generation, making it the fifth in the world to successfully obtain its own gas turbine technology.
A demonstration run of over 15,000 hours was then conducted at the Gimpo Combined Heat & Power Plant, through which the performance was verified.
This was followed by the successive securing of supplier agreements for a total of eight gas turbines, which is leading to the expansion of the gas turbine business.
The surge in data centers’ electricity demand, driven by AI, played a key part in this recent contract win.
As data centers around the world are facing difficulties in meeting the surging electricity demand with the existing power grid, they are all searching for a new source of energy.
It was during this search that gas turbines started gaining attention, specifically due to the advantages it offered in terms of construction lead time, stability of electricity supply, rapid start-up and operating efficiency.
Doosan Enerbility, which has its own suite of locally developed gas turbine models, is actively working to expand this area of business.
Doosan Enerbility’s Houston-based U.S. subsidiary, Doosan Turbomachinery Services (DTS), also contributed to the recent contract win.
In the case of gas turbines, maintenance of the turbines is just as important as the initial delivery of the product. DTS will be handling the maintenance services for the gas turbines that are to be supplied by Doosan Enerbility to the U.S. market.
“This contract signifies a major turning point for South Korea, as this shows that our country is no longer dependent on imported gas turbines, but is now a country that has the capability to export its own homegrown gas turbines,” said Sohn Seung-woo, CEO of Doosan Enerbility’s Power Services Business Group.
“We plan to show our appreciation to our customers by delivering on our commitments regarding product quality and deadline, while also working to expand our reach in the global market.”
Expanding Nuclear Partnership with U.S. Companies
Doosan announced on August 26 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Amazon Web Services (AWS), X-energy and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) on engaging in SMR-related cooperation initiatives.
The signing of the MOU took place on August 25 (local time) in Washington D.C. directly after the “KORUS(Korea-U.S.) Business Roundtable,” with business leaders including Shannon Kellogg, Vice President of Amazon Web Services; Clay Sell, CEO of X-energy; Whang Joo-ho, President & CEO of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and Park Gee-won, Chairman & CEO of Doosan Enerbility, in attendance.
According to the terms of the MOU, the four companies will be collaborating on the design, construction and operation of SMRs, establishment of the supply chain, relevant investments and market expansion.
AWS, in particular, is showing active engagement as reflected in its investment of approximately USD 700 million in the commercialization of a 5GW SMR.
This SMR model will have a generation capacity equivalent to 64 units of X-energy’s 80MW SMR, and is to be deployed by 2039 to use in the power supply of AWS’ AI data center.
“Backed by the governmental support from both countries, we find it truly meaningful to have this opportunity to speed up the SMR commercialization process,” said Geewon Park, Chairman and CEO of Doosan Enerbility.
“With Doosan’s proven manufacturing capabilities, we will play our role faithfully and do our best to establish this MOU as a best practice for industrial cooperation between the two countries’ energy sectors.”
In 2023, Doosan Enerbility had made an equity investment in X-energy and it currently enjoys a strong partnership with X-energy as its main components supplier.
With support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), X-energy is currently engaged in a joint project with Dow Chemical involving the deployment of their first SMR in Texas. The DOE has invested a total of USD 1.2 billion in a show of support for the demonstration of X-energy’s SMR.
That same day, Doosan Enerbility also signed an MOU on nuclear power and SMR cooperation with the U.S. energy developer Fermi America.
The two companies will be engaging in a comprehensive partnership for large reactors and SMRs to be supplied to the “AI Campus Project”, a project that is currently being pursued by Fermi America in the state of Texas.
The project involves building a 11GW private grid and world’s largest AI data center by combining various energy sources, such as four large-size reactors (total 4GW), SMRs, gas-fired combined cycle power plants, solar energy and a large BESS (Battery Energy Storage System).
Backed by the successively signed MOUs, Doosan Enerbility plans to further solidify its position in the global energy market by stepping up efforts to enter the U.S. nuclear energy and SMR market.
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