Korea South-East Power Co. (KOSEP) has an intrapreneurship program in place as part of its efforts to innovate management with the goal of tapping staff members’ capacities.

KOSEP has become the first Korean power company to implement intrapreneurship in which each team, department, and site office are assigned goals and given autonomy in their budgets and personnel transfers. KOSEP President & CEO Jang Do-soo and intrepreneurs have gotten together to discuss and determine goals and promotions have been made depending on the outcomes of the intrapreneurship.  

As to the background of the intrapreneurship, KOSEP CEO Jang presided over an emergency management innovation strategy meeting with his executives and senior staff members in 2008 after KOSEP suffered losses in the wake of the global financial crisis. At that time, Jang stressed the need for breaking the mold by innovating management as a public enterprise. He said, “Incurring losses seems like committing a crime to the general public.”

KOSEP officials noted that now that all staff members have an attitude of becoming intrapreneurs, they have grown more concerned about cost and are encouraged to explore their full potential. As the system has begun to pay off, KOSEP has expanded it. The system has been put into practice in 16 power complexes and joint ventures in which KOSEP has a more than 50 percent interest. 

KOSEP has also become the first public enterprise to implement total productive maintenance (TPM), a method for improved machine availability through better utilization of maintenance and production resources. Thanks to improved machine availability by 76 TPM teams, KOSEP saw the equipment operation rate surge from 86.7 percent in 2008 to 93.7 percent in 2010 and the equipment utilization rate jump from 68.2 percent to 77.9 percent during the same period. The company’ s severe self-salvaging efforts have led to its overcoming losses and becoming the power company that posted the biggest operating profits during the period between 2009 and late 2011. This June, it was announced that KOSEP was the sole energy-related company to be rated A among Korean public entities according to 2011 evaluations of public enterprises and their CEOs. 

KOSEP is now focusing on creating new revenues by executing new projects at home and abroad. The company aims to chalk up 6 trillion won in sales through the implementation of new businesses such as resources exploration, overseas business expansion, and the development of new and renewable energy projects by 2020 that will account for 60 percent of its total sales. 

CEO Jang has focused on exploring overseas markets to secure KOSEP’ s future breadwinners and cope with current business conditions in which the domestic power market has been saturated and international prices of anthracite and other power-generating fuels have skyrocketed. KOSEP has been devoting itself to stabilizing its coal supply via overseas markets, creating new profit-making projects, and landing overseas plant construction orders and technology consulting service projects. 

KOSEP devotes itself to commercializing the world-class power operation technologies it has acquired during its operation in Korea and consulting services worldwide. A case in point was a start-up operation deal for plants in Mundra, India, which was conducted between April 2010 and April 2012. 

KOSEP participated in a large-sized solar power plant project in Bulgaria, which was completed this past February. It is Korea’ s first 42 MW solar photovoltaic installation in the villages of Samovodene and Zlataritsa in the Eastern European country. 

The company plans to collaborate on the construction and operation of overseas power plants with Korean consortium partners. KOSEP and SK Group have teamed up to carry out a project to repower the existing power plants and construct a thermoelectric power plant in the Afsin-Elbistan area in Turkey. The US$2 billion (2.3 trillion won) project is to repair the existing four power plant units (total 1,355 MW) and to construct two new power plant units (total 700 MW) in the Afsin-Elbistan area, 600 Km southeast of the capital, Ankara.

KOSEP also looks to explore more business opportunities in Korea.