OREANDA-NEWS. March 01, 2012. Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT / TSE:6501) today announced that together with Daelim Industrial Co., Ltd., one of South Korea's largest construction firms, recently it awarded an order by Korea Western Power Co., Ltd. (KOWEPO) to supply two boilers of 1,050MW-class for ultra-supercritical* (USC) coal-fired thermal power generation and Hitachi individually received an order to supply for steam turbines and power generators. Both are for use in the No. 9 and No. 10 units at the Taean Thermal Power Plant.

Demand for electric power in South Korea is increasing in line with the country's economic growth. Demand is seen continuing to grow going forward, and plans have been made for the construction of new power plants to increase the country's current 76 GW of total power generation capacity by 24 GW by 2020.

The new power generation equipment will be for the No. 9 and No. 10 units that will be added to the Taean Thermal Power Plant, which provides power to the South Korean capital and the surrounding regions and is located in Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, 100km southwest of Seoul. The new equipment will be the largest thermal power generation equipment in terms of power generation capacity in South Korea. Korea Western Power awarded the order to the consortium in recognition of Hitachi's advanced technological capabilities, product quality, functional reliability, and its track record thus far in South Korea. Hitachi is slated to be in charge of the main equipment including the designs of steam turbines and power generators and boilers. The Hitachi Group company Babcock-Hitachi K.K. (President Tetsuro Wakino) will be in charge of the boiler equipment. The No. 9 unit is scheduled to begin commercial operations in June 2016, followed by the No. 10 unit in December 2016.

Hitachi has an extensive track record in USC coal-fired thermal power plants, which control CO2 emissions while enhancing generation efficiency by increasing the steam pressure and temperature inside boilers. To date, Hitachi has won orders for 9 power plants in Japan and 27 overseas. In South Korea, Hitachi won the order for two 870MW class steam turbines and power generators for the No. 3 and No. 4 units of Korea South-East Power Company's Yeongheung Thermal Power Plant in 2004, and in July 2010, the company won the order for two 1,000MW boilers for the No. 9 and No. 10 units of Korea East-West Power Company's Dangjin Power Plant. In December 2010, Hitachi also won the order for two 870MW steam turbines and power generators for the No. 5 and No. 6 units of Korea South-East Power's Yeongheung Thermal Power Plant. The successful conclusion of this new contract would mark Hitachi's the fourth consecutive success in international competitive bidding for a coal-fired thermal power plant in South Korea.

Hitachi is striving to globally develop and accelerate its Social Innovation Business by proactively pursuing orders for coal-fired thermal power plants in emerging markets where the construction of numerous new power plants is anticipated in the future.