HHI Sends 4 PSSs to Supply Power to Japanese Disaster Areas

Japan accepts an offer from HHI to supply mobile power generators

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has decided to send four packaged power stations (PPS) to supply power to the Japanese areas devastated by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear disaster.
Minister Rim Chae-min of the Prime Minister’s Office, Hideaki Mizkoshi, minister of the Japanese Embassy in Korea, HHI Chairman Min Keh-shik and HHI President and CEO Lee Jai-seong huddled together to discuss the matter at the Central Government Building in downtown Seoul on March 19.
The participants exchanged views on the dispatching of PPSs to supply power to the embattled first nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The decision was made at the request of Rep. Chung Mong-joon, of the Grand National Party, who is the biggest shareholder of HHI, offered ways to give a helping hand to Japan to Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik. Rep. Chung ordered HHI executives to weigh the emergency dispatch of PPS after hearing reports that the United States decided to send General Electric’s gas turbine power generator “TM2500.”
The U.S. power generators are considered to offer better performance, but it takes too much time for the equipment to be transported to Japan, so Rep. Chung suggested the offer to the Japanese side, who expressed an affirmative response, HHI officials said.
Officials from Tokyo Electric Power and HHI have since held working-level talks to discuss the details, which proceeded in a swift manner.
HHI will send four PPSs and technical staff within this month to supply power to the nuclear power plant, which is in the worst situation in the wake of a failure to cool down the boiling nuclear power rods due to the disruption of power supply and the breakdown of the related equipment.
The PPSs will be sent to residents in natural disaster-stricken areas in the neighborhood of the nuclear power plant who suffer from a shortage of electricity after their mission at the power plant is complete.
The four PPSs, each capable of producing 1.7MW of electricity, can supply power to about 26,000 people.
The equipment, fitted with an engine developed by HHI, is easy to be installed and moved, and can be operated by diesel or cheaper heavy oil.
Cuba is widespread in the use of the PPSs, the image of which appears on the 10 Cuban peso bill. A hurricane hit Cuba in 2008, causing great havoc to power facilities, so PPSs were supplied as emergency steps. The Cuban government is now operating 544 PPS imports to account for 35 percent of its total power supply.
The PPS has played a part in supplying power to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and other areas destroyed by a powerful earthquake in January 2010.
HHI has so far exported 1,700 PPSs to Central and South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
HHI officials said that PPSs are in operation to supply 27MW of power to Port-au-Prince and other areas in Haiti, and orders have been rising from Central and South American regions where national disasters take place frequently.
HHI will be able to strengthen its presence in the non-shipping area by supplying PPSs to Japan, they said. nw

(from left)Rep. Chung Mong-joon, owner of Hyundai Heavy Industries.; The packaged power stations, produced by Hyundai Heavy Industries, which were installed in Agramonte, Cuba in 2007.

Photo by courtesy of HHI