KEPCO seal the deal for Vietnam coal plant

An international consortium led by state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) clinched a US$2.3 billion deal to build a thermal power plant in Vietnam, KEPCO said Thursday.

Under a build, operation and transfer deal, the consortium will build the coal power plant with a generation capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts by 2018 and operate the plant for the next 25 years before it is transferred to the Vietnamese government.

KEPCO and Japan’s Murabeni Corp. will have a 50 percent stake each in the power plant.

The deal itself is worth $2.3 billion, but the plant is expected to generate up to $15 billion for KEPCO alone over the next 25 years following its completion as the Vietnamese government has agreed to purchase all electricity generated by the plant under a separate agreement, it said.

“The deal itself marks a significant achievement by KEPCO as it was won in a competition against leading global companies, such as France’s EDF group and Japan’s Mitsui,” the company said in a press release.

The latest deal will put KEPCO’s overseas generation capacity at more than 5.86 million kilowatts in 18 countries, including China, Mexico and Australia, it added.