- Power supply using power generation infrastructure such as solar panels on the rooftop of buildings and factories
- Maximization of power generation efficiency with “Smart O&M” based on the smart industry platform 

POSCO ICT (CEO Choi Doo-whan) will enter the small capacity power generation business using photovoltaic, an eco-friendly energy source.

POSCO ICT will install the infrastructure including solar panel on the roofs of buildings and factories to generate 1MW-class power and sell it to Korea Power Exchange (KPX). As a demonstration, the company will install the infrastructure on the roof of its HQ building in Pohang and POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks and begin commercial production next year. It will secure additional ground and plan to expand the power generation capacity.

POSCO ICT plans to expand the business by linking the small-scale power trading business – which is about to be launched in Korea – and small-capacity power generation business and integrate it with the 300MW-class demand response (DR) service to grow into the country’s biggest virtual power plant (VPP) service provider.

The domestic solar power generation market is expected to grow continuously as the government plans to cease operation of aged coal-fired thermal power plants and expand the portion of new renewable energy from the current 4.6% to 20% by 2030. In particular, the small-capacity power generation already takes up 80% of the total solar power generation and has great potential to grow given the higher incentive provided by the government to promote eco-friendly power generation and because it is easier to attain the ground and license.

As a matter of fact, a weight value of 1.5 is applied to small-capacity (3MW or less) power generation but it is 1.0 for large-capacity power generation when issuing the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC)*. The weight value increases to 5 and enhances economic feasibility if the Energy Storage System (ESS) is linked. The existing power plants must generate a certain amount of new and renewable energy of the total generated power amount in accordance with the regulation on the “obligation to supply new and renewable energy.” If a certain amount of new and renewable energy is not generated, they must purchase the energy from outside. Private power suppliers such as POSCO ICT can sell the new and renewable energy on the spot market for higher income.

POSCO ICT will increase economic efficiency by integrating its operation of power plants with the “Smart Operation & Maintenance (O&M)” program. It is essential for small-scale power plants to have remotely operated unmanned power plants by integrating multiple power plants since given the higher unit operating cost. POSCO ICT will apply its smart industry platform “PosFrame” to implement the smart O&M-based operation system to lower the operating cost of power plants as well as collect and analyze the otherwise neglected field data to increase the efficiency of equipment management and power generation.

* Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) is a certificate that represents the power that was produced and supplied by renewable energy facilities.