- Company to advance to the Latin American energy market by cooperating with the Costa Rican Electricity and Telecommunications Public Enterprise (ICE).
- Company to supply ESS and energy-efficient solution, etc., including infrastructure for charging electric vehicle
 

POSCO ICT (President & CEO: Choi, Doo Whan) is cooperating with the Costa Rican government to advance to the local Smart energy market, including infrastructure for charging electric vehicle.

POSCO ICT signed on the 13th a three-party memorandum of understanding with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) of Costa Rica and KAIST Global Commercialization Center (GCC) and agreed to operate the Smart energy business jointly in Costa Rica. As a national corporation that provides electricity and communication services in Costa Rica, the Institute of Electricity accounts for over 80% of the electricity market.

This event was attended by Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera, president of the republic of Costa Rica who has been in Korea on an official visit since the 10th, government officials including Luis Pacheco Morgan, president of ICE’s electricity division, and domestic officials including Choi, Doo Whan, president of POSCO ICT, and Choi Moon-kee of KAIST GCC who is the former minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

Through this agreement, POSCO ICT plans to cooperate with ICE in order to supply EV charging platform and overall EV charging infrastructure for supporting the project of the Costa Rican government for expanding electric vehicles and to make active cooperation in fields such as large-capacity energy storage system and total energy optimization solution in the future. Under the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by recording zero carbon dioxide emission by 2021, Costa Rica is implementing various policies for excluding the use of fossil fuel. Notably, it is implementing supportive policies for replacing the internal-combustion vehicle – which accounts for 70% of the entire fuel consumption in the country – with electric vehicles by providing various tax benefits and free parking services.

Although the supply of electric vehicles in Costa Rica is still in the early stage, market advancement by global electric vehicle corporations for occupying the relevant market is expected, thanks to the project for expanding electric vehicles by the government. 

POSCO ICT plans to carry out various local projects such as supplying infrastructure that includes charging platform, which is a critical factor in spreading the use of electric vehicle. POSCO ICT possesses know-how in implementing and operating Korea’s largest charging infrastructure. According to the company, its experiences in implementing and operating the charging infrastructure for various complete vehicle corporations such as Hyundai Motor Company, BMW, and GM have worked as one of the strengths for this cooperation.

“The cooperation with the local electricity and communication corporation (ICE) laid a foundation for advancing into the Latin American energy market, including Costa Rica. Beginning with the EV charging infrastructure, which already went through the verification process in Korea, we plan to supply technologies like ESS and total energy optimization solution into the overseas market actively,” a POSCO ICT official said.