President Lyu Hyang-reol of Korea South-East Power Co. (KOEN)

Korea South-East Power Co. (KOEN) is expected to focus its capabilities to realize an energy paradigm shift and implement projects related to replacing coal.

KOEN is striving to restructure its power generation portfolio, now focusing on coal-fired power.

In his New Year’s message, delivered on Jan. 4, KOEN President Lyu Hyang-reol said the phasing out of coal-fired power generation is predicted to be faster than expected.

He presented a path forward to reaching sustainable growth by being nimble and overcoming a crisis.

President Lyu said, despite unprecedented hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, KOEN became the first company to open a 1GW renewable energy generation era through an aggressive and dramatic energy paradigm shift, and began the full-fledged construction of a Nepalese hydro-electric power plant.

He evaluated that KOEN made many achievements as the power company received an “A” grade in a management evaluation survey for the first time in seven years.

Lyu said Korea’s economic order is predicted to swiftly reshape the growth-oriented paradigm into one focusing on the environment and climate change, boosted by the government declaring carbon neutrality.

He forecast that coal-fired power will be phased out faster than expected.

There are not any companies which are not faced with a crisis, he said, and the business cannot grow without a process to overcome a crisis.

Seeing that a crisis is expected to serve as a good opportunity to prompt change, President Lyu said, “We can enter a path of sustainable growth beyond survival if we carry out aggressive challenges in a nimble fashion to overcome hardships.”

In particular, he emphasized that KOEN should concentrate its capabilities to implement projects to substitute coal-fired power.

Korea has been witnessing closures of coal-fired power plants one of the nation’s major power generation sources.

It is sure to serve as a crisis for KOEN, which heavily depends on coal-fired power, but it also will be a good opportunity to restructure its coal-fired power generation portfolio, he said.

As part of the restructuring, he said, KOEN carried out massive photovoltaic power projects such as floating solar farms in Goheung Lake and Haechang Bay and on-land solar power complexes in the Saemangeum, Shinan and Haenam areas.

The power company will accelerate the implementation of a project to a 4GW coasting photovoltaic power complex project following the Tamna Coastal Solar Farm project.

KOEN will also build KOEN-style green New Deal brand and lead the future power generation industry such as intelligent future digital power plants and decentralized power girt digital platforms.
President Lyu designed KOEN’s catchphrase for 2021 “mushinbulip,” a Chinese saying, meaning that “anyone cannot stand without trust.”

A view of Korea South-East Power Co. headquarters in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do. (Photos: KOEN)

KOEN was awarded a 2nd class grade in the comprehensive integrity category, the highest level, in the 2020 integrity survey among public entities, conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC).

As a result, KOEN was honored with being designated as a top-tier integrity entity for the third straight year since 2018.

ACRC measures integrity of public entities based on the incidence levels of corruption and the outcomes of surveys of their staff and the general public.