KOWEPO employees test-operate technologies to check the status of boilers using a drone at the Taean Power Complex. (Photos: KOWEPO)

Korea Western Power Co. (KOWEPO) is test-operating technologies to check the status of boilers using a drone, one of the core technologies related to the 4th Industrial Revolution, at the Taean Power Complex.

A test-operation of the technologies is being done during an overhaul at the fourth unit of the Taean Power Complex in the presence of site inspectors and researchers from the head office.

Problems such as damages of tubes at a coal-fired power plant are maintenance issues related to the management of the facilities. Checkups into tubes requires time and costs stemming from the installation of scaffolding as well as monitoring safety accidents.

Technologies such as drone flights, a video transmission function, a super-low degree camera, and an indoor location sensor technology are in place in order to overcome the treacherous process.

The project is being under taken in collaboration with Hanseo University, a Seosan-based educational institution specializing in flight operation and technology. Such collaboration has paid off to some extent as two patents have been obtained and two others are in the process of patent review.

The drone project is being pushed by KOWEPO in connection with the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

President Kim Byung-sook of Korea Western Power Co. (KOWEPO).

President Kim, a Living Witness of Development of Korean Power Industry

Upon taking office, President Kim proposed a public idea contest as the first move of promoting in-house innovation. Innovation had ended up as a hollow slogan at a time of governmental and presidential change.

He opted to adopt a bottom-up innovation strategy through communication with staff members, instead of a conventional top-down method. President Kim’s determination to innovate has gotten a good reception from KOWEPO staffers. The power company received a whopping 1,377 innovative ideas.

Fifty-five ideas were shortlisted to the “WP-Move Project” are in process for innovation. The “Innovation through communication” strategy is owed to President Kim’s good communication with KOWEPO staff. Kim is believed to be well aware of KOWEPO’s inner workings since he served as a non-standing outside director of the board while working for KEPCO.

A reorganization was done in early June, based on staffers’ ideas so that they can sense the difference, President Kim said. His management tenets have crept into the reorganization scheme. Among the eye-catching innovation ideas to differentiate KOWEPO from other power companies is: the fact that KOWEPO has become the first to inaugurate a department in charge of localization to localize power generation equipment and secure technology self-sufficiency.

He is one of the witnesses of the development of the Korean power industry. Kim held such positions for Korea Electric Power Corp. as president of the Electricity Research Institute, head of the Technology Engineering Division and chief of the New Growth Division and he served as president of Ullung Island Eco-Friendly Energy Independence before being appointed as KOWEPO president.

President Kim is dubbed as an “Idea man” Kim, who entered KEPCO in 1979, had stints as head of KEPCO Power Research Institute, chief of the Technology Engineering Division and head of the New Growth Engine Division. He was a seasoned engineer-turned CEO, who had contributed 18 tutorials to academic journals.

In a recent interview with a vernacular daily, President Kim said KOWEPO has drawn up a plan on its own to raise the portion of new and renewable such as photovoltaic power and wind power in power generation to 5 percentage points more that the government goal of 20 percent by 2030.

To this end, a gigawatt-class photovoltaic power complex will be built in Taean County, and KOWEPO is seeking to push an offshore wind power plant complex that can also accommodate farming. A technology to move a solar panel according to the location of the sun will be adopted to enhance power generation efficiency, he said.

Salty farming areas with poor crops, reclamation land, and idle salt ponds will be made available as sites of photovoltaic power complexes in a business model of reciprocating residents’ interests, Kim said.