President Kim Kyung-won of the Korea District Heating Corp. (KDHC), now more than four months in office, has been credited with doing a good job at the eco-friendly public corporation.
Since he took the helm of the corporation at the KDHC headquarters in Bundang, Gyeonggi-do, in July, KDHC President Kim has stressed the importance of communication with his executives and staff members.
In his inaugural speech, Kim expounded four management tenets to take KDHC a step further. First, he called for creativity and innovation for a sustainable future growth by predicting external and internal environment changes, ramping up capabilities and taking preemptive measures. He urged them to establish a corporate culture in which management can communicate and cooperate with labor unions through the creation of a cooperative regime through communication and sharing.
Kim emphasized the need for making the KDHC a public entity beloved by people through the provision of reliability and safety, the foremost values. And last but not least, he called for translating into action transparent and ethical management tenets internally and proactively implementing of social responsibilities through coexistence and cooperation externally.
KDHC President Kim proved his leadership abilities in the successful hosting of the 15th Energy Agency (IEA) District Heating & Cooling (DHC) International Symposium, the first in Asia, which took place in Seoul in September. The biennial event brought together academic and industrial researchers from different countries so they can keep in touch with the latest research and development trends in the field of district heating and cooling.
The biennial symposium focused ensuring the future success of district heating and cooling through a multi-disciplinary approach to research and development embracing economic, environmental and energy considerations. In his opening message, KDHC President Kim said, “I hope this academic event will serve as an opportunity to publicize extensively the excellence and the significance of the spreading of district heating and cooling systems that have contributed to promoting national energy conservation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
President Kim has been credited with doing better than other CEOs of public entities during the 2016 parliamentary interpellation of the KDHC. For instance, he promised to do such things as overhaul “earthquake-proof” designs while replaying to lawmakers’ questions regarding countermeasures to cope with earthquakes, including the one that hit the Gyeongju area in Oct. 12.
He held positions at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy for 27 years. He also had a stint as president of the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, during which he returned the research institution to profitability.
He has made his case that the KDHC should secure future growth, the corporation’s foremost task. The days will never come again when the KDHC supplied heating to 2 million households, seeing an explosive demand increase, said President Kim, adding that the corporation can enjoy an annual growth rate of 5 percent if it expands its business to non-notified areas.
“If such new and renewable energies as geothermal power and fuel cells are combined with community energy businesses, they will make energy quite efficient,” Kim said in an interview. People had a hard time in coping this summer due to the sultry weather, and if a technology involving the utilization waste heat as an energy source is developed, it will prove a great boon to the national economy, he noted. The Central Research Institute is striving to explore ways of combining community energy projects with new and renewable energies, and it has made a proposal to further study them with the Korea Energy Economics Institute.
President Kim is currently preoccupied with improving the financial structure of the corporation, which has a debt ratio of 181 percent, higher than the average of other public entities.
In June, the government announced a plan to reduce the debt ratio through paid-in capital increase, but the labor union and civic organizations oppose it.
The KDHC was founded in 1985 under the Integrated Energy Supply Act. Its purpose is to make life more convenient for people and contribute to energy efficiency. Its district heating and cooling businesses reduce pollution and greatly improves air quality. The KDHC has established itself as one of the world’s leading district energy companies. It contributes to the national energy economy by providing reliable heating and cooling services.
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