OREANDA-NEWS. SK E&C started up the construction of USD 1.2 billion (KRW 1.3 trillion) coal-fueled power plant in Chili.

SK E&C announced that the company signed a preconstruction contract with a Chilean private power generation company E-CL and began EPC.

In accordance with this, SK E&C will execute preconstruction procedures such as design and construction planning by the end of February, 2015, begin the construction in March 2015, and complete the construction by the end of 2018.

This project is to build two units of 375MW coal-fueled power plants in the Pacific coast area located in Mejillones, Antofagasta, 1,200km north from the capital Santiago, Chili.

SK E&C will be in charge of all the procedures for this plant such as the design, procurement, construction, and the test run of all power generation units including a coal boiler, a steam turbine, a coal treatment facility, and a desulfurization facility. The generated electricity will be delivered to large mine companies and power distribution companies nearby.

SK E&C had been selected as a preferred bidder of this project passing fierce competition against Spanish and Italian companies in August 2013. In particular, local interests were focused on the fact that a Korean company will construct Chili's largest coal-fueled power plant in the Chili market which is monopolized by European companies.

Chili is planning to invest USD 10 million to mine development by the end of 2020. It is expected that this investment will result in the construction of a minimum 8,000 MW thermoelectric power plant.

In particular, as the Chili power generation market is fully privatized, private power generation companies hold a great influence on the power generation market and the relationship with the power generation companies are considered the most important factor to win an order. E-CL, a subsidiary of Europe's largest private power generation company GDF SUEZ, is the largest private power generation company in the northern Chili.

Based on the successful execution of this project, SK E&C is planning to build up trust with the bid announcer in order to secure additional projects from overseas markets where GDF SUEZ is doing business as well as Chili.