South Korean energy companies Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction and Korea Midland Power (KOMIPO) plan to cooperate to jointly develop a new overseas hydropower business.
The agreement with KOMIPO focuses on localisation of hydropower plant equipment, engineering and development of sales channels for export.
KOMIPO has operated the 45MW Wampoo Hydroelectric Plant in Sumatra Island since 2016. It also has overseen the 55.4MW Tanggamus Hydropower Plant since 2018 and is developing several new projects in Indonesia.
“Since this agreement will expand opportunities for both companies to strengthen their presence in hydropower business in Korea and overseas, which has been dominated by foreign companies, we plan to increase the localisation of main equipment manufacture and design and promote the domestic hydropower ecosystem,” said Doosan Heavy’s vice-president Na Gi-yong. “We will aggressively penetrate the SE Asian hydropower market, which is expected to grow to about 40GW by 2040.”
Doosan is a key player in engineering, procurement and construction of power projects globally. The firm also is developing a large gas turbine to compete with the likes of GE, Siemens and Mitsubishi Power.
It began the hydropower business in the 1980s. Having been the main contractor for many hydropower plants for a total capacity of 3100MW in Korea, it has supplied the main equipment to overseas hydropower plants in the United States, India, and Philippines.
It is expanding its overseas business as it won the Upper Tirshuli-1 Hydropower Plant in Nepal last month and is developing a hydropower plant project in Pakistan.