- POSCO ICT builds infrastructure for charging electric vehicles at the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) for trial operation
- Discussions held on methods for business execution such as large-capacity ESS, electricity demand side management and energy efficiency 

POSCO ICT (CEO Choi Doo-hwan) cooperates with the Costa Rican government to begin its advancement into the Smart Energy market in Costa Rica, such as infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.

On 5th December (local time), POSCO ICT began trial operation by establishing the infrastructure for charging its electric vehicles at the head office of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) at San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica. The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) is a state-run enterprise that provides both electricity and telecommunication services nationwide. During the operation ceremony, POSCO ICT officials, including President Choi Doo-hwan, as well as Costa Rican government and corporate officials including Science, Technology, and Telecommunications Minister Marcelo Jenkins Coronas, Environment Minister Irene Canas, and ICE CEO Francisco Garro attended.

Last October, POSCO ICT signed an MOU with ICE for Smart Energy business cooperation in the presence of the Costa Rican president who made an official visit to Korea. At the time, POSCO ICT and ICE decided to supply EV charging platform and overall infrastructure for supporting the expansion of electric vehicles business of the Costa Rican government.

This visit by POSCO ICT, which was made at the request of Costa Rica at the time of signing the MOU, aims to increase the speed of the business by building the charging infrastructure and performing a trial run in order to gain the trust of local officials. Along with this, discussions on implementing the procedures and methods for projects such as energy storage system (ESS), energy efficiency, and electricity demand response (DR) in local sites – which were discussed at the time of MOU – were made.

"Through this cooperation with ICE, a company with 80% share of the entire energy market in Costa Rica, came to possess the foundation for carrying out the local energy business. Based on its Smart Energy technologies, POSCO ICT plans to engage actively in businesses on Smart Energy not only in Costa Rica but also in Latin America,” an official from POSCO ICT said.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica is implementing various policies for eradicating the use of fossil fuel under the goal of becoming a carbon-zero country, which means zero carbon dioxide emission, by 2021. Notably, it is carrying out various supportive measures, such as providing various tax benefits for replacing internal combustion engine vehicles – which account for 70% of the entire fuel oil consumption in the country – with electric vehicles.