President Casey Choi of SK E&C.

SK Engineering and Construction Co. has kicked off the thermal power construction project in Chile, which is worth around $1.2 billion, the company said recently.

 The construction company expects to finish the entire phase of the project with E-CL, the owner of the project, before construction begins by February, next year. The phase includes design and construction. 

The project involves the construction of two coal-fired thermal power plants, some 1,200 km north of San Tiago, Chile, in Antofagasta State and the other in Mejillones State on the Pacific coast, both 375 Mw-class thermal power plants are scheduled to be completed in 2018.

SK E&C should take charge of securing coal-fired boilers, steam turbines, coal handling equipment, and sulfur removal facilities, among others, including the design of power generation equipment, procurement, construction to test-runs as the contract is signed on an EPC basis.

The Korean builder won the project in a heated competition with rivals from Europe, Germany, Spain and Italy, in an open bidding process in August. It attracted significant public attention in Chile because European firms used to win large industrial projects in the Latin American country, but this time a non-European firm clinched a project for the first time.

 Chile plans to invest $100 billion in the construction of more thermal power plants by 2020 to supply 8,000 Mw of power for its mining development projects.

 The power generation sector in Chile has been privatized and, therefore, connections with civilian power companies are very important when it comes to winning thermal power plant construction projects there.

 E-CL, the owner of the thermal power plant project, is an affiliate of GDF (Gaz de France)-Suez, the largest electricity utility company in Europe. Based in France, it operates the majority of the thermal power plants in northern Chile. SK E&C plans to establish a very good relationship with E-CL to build other thermal power plants — not only in Chile, but also in other regions of the world where GDF-Suez is involved.

Since its founding in 1977, SK E&C has continuously pursued stability and growth based on top-notch technical expertise and outstanding management capabilities in various areas of construction, including national infrastructure, housing, plants, eco-friendly incinerators and nuclear power plants, as well as its U-business that includes wireless mobile communication equipment. Throughout the years, SK E&C has been evolving and working towards its motto “Build the Great, Great Life, Great World.”

After SK Group’s acquisition of the Ulsan refinery and petrochemical complex in 1980, SKE&C also began to grow process and power plant EPC capabilities to support rapid expansion of the Ulsan Complex. Based on the successful project execution experience in Korea, SK E&C started expanding global presence in the 90’s and accelerated its global growth exponentially in the past decade.

Recently, SK E&C delivered many landmark projects to exceed customer expectation. As a result, the company has gained the trust of major customers in the Middle East, South East Asia and Latin America. Its recent global success stories include many multi-billion dollar EPC projects for oil refining, gas processing, and power plants, unique development projects for eco-friendly buildings, and large infrastructure projects for national economic development. Many projects have been completed substantially ahead of schedule with excellent quality and unprecedented safety records.

Its differentiating capabilities are built around the unique business model, called “Total Solution Provider (TSP),” which includes conceptualization, financing, basic engineering, feedstock and off-take arrangements as well traditional EPC, PM, and O&M services.