posco AMERICA

Feb. 04, 2010

-Milestone project offers examples to follow

The Chilean coal-fired power plant built by POSCO E&C has recently started producing electricity, after successfully finishing its final stages of performance and security tests.

Situated in the industrial city of Ventanas, which lies about 160 kilometers northwest of Santiago, the facility is a 240 MW coal-powered plant on which 415 billion won ($370 million) has been spent.

The turnkey project also marks the first ever coal-powered power plant to be built outside of Korea by a Korean constructor.

It is also a monumental step for the Latin American energy plant market.

Signing a turnkey EPC contract to build the facility with AES Gener, the Chilean affiliate of the U.S.-based global electricity company AES, in September 2006, POSCO E&C broke ground for it in December, the same year.In the final performance test on January 28, the power plant showed a capacity of 252.2MW, four percent higher than originally planned based on the contract.

The power plant is also expected to save lots of energy, as its average heat rate has also been improved much from the initial plan.

As Chile is comparatively vulnerable to earthquakes, the facility is also designed to endure earthquakes above a magnitude of seven.

Passing the Chilean government`s safety and environment standards, which are as strict as those of European countries, can only mean that POSCO E&C`s construction and eco-friendly technologies such as desulfurization and denitrification methods have won global recognition.

By Chun dong-joon Communicator
djchun@poscoenc.com

*The new coal-fired power plant built by POSCO E&C, which is in Ventanas, Chile