Korea

KEPCO's third-quarter earnings dropped 71 percent from a year earlier largely due to increased fuel costs and a weak local currency. Net profit reached 266 billion won or US$234 million for Korea Electric Power Corp.  in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 902 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. For the source of this story, click here.

Hyundai Heavy Industries has suspended operations of some facilities that manufacture solar cells and solar modules.

A joint venture has been formed between Northern Caucasus Resorts Company, Korean Western Power and CHT Korea will build up to five new environmentally advanced power stations in Russia.

S-Energy increased its module capacity by 120MW to a total of 350MW in October 2011.

South Korea will instruct domestic utilities to secure high calorific steaming coal to prevent blackouts in winter, the economy ministry said.

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said the project to build a natural-gas pipeline across the divided peninsula is “a win-win for everyone involved”.

Struthers Wells, a Babcock Power company, announced the opening of a new Babcock Power offices in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea.

South Korea's state-run energy companies saw their debt grow sharply over the past five years as rising raw material prices drove up overall production costs, a report showed Monday. According to the report submitted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy for a parliamentary audit, Korea Electric Power Co. (KEPCO), the nation's sole power supplier, posted 33.4 trillion won (US$29.9 billion) in debt last year, up from 20.6 trillion won tallied in 2006.

South Korea's government said Monday that there were a total of 91 failures in operations of nuclear reactors in the country over the past 10 years due to mechanical glitches and other problems. In a report to the National Assembly, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the Gori-1 reactor, South Korea's oldest nuclear reactor, went offline due to an electrical malfunction in April this year. Yonhap News

President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea harshly rebuked electricity officials over the nationwide blackouts after an investigation showed that a wrong demand forecast caused the accident.

The government of Korea launched an audit into the state power monopoly and distributor to find out the exact cause of the recent massive blackouts that left millions of homes without electricity for hours.

Shareholders of KEPCO named Kim Joong-kyum as its new chief.

South Korea and Colombia agreed to strengthen cooperation in the eco-friendly green energy sector, reports Yonhap News.

U.S. producers of liquid dielectric large power transformers has allegedly been hurt by South Korea's allegedly unfair export of large power transformers. This was announced by the US Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission or ITC.   

South Korea clinched key agreements with Kazakhstan Thursday on two US$4 billion projects to build a thermal power plant and a petrochemical complex in the Central Asian nation, the latest fruit of President Lee Myung-bak's trip to Central Asia.    After summit talks between Lee and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the two sides signed an "inter-government agreement" guaranteeing South Korea's 70-percent stake in a $4 billion project to build a coal-fired power plant in the southern city of Balkhash.    Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) and Samsung C&T currently hold a 35-percent stake each in the project to build a 1,320-megawatt plant that is expected to generate about 7 percent of Kazakhstan's electricity needs.    Officials said that the intergovernmental guarantee is a must to make sure that the terms of the contract will remain effective regardless of changes to the law in Kazakhstan and to ensure that the Kazakh government will buy electricity from the plant.    In addition, South Korea's LG Chem and Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries (KPI) also signed a contract to establish a joint venture to push for a $4 billion project to build a petrochemical complex in Atyrau on the northern banks of the Caspian Sea.    The envisioned complex will use gas from the nearby Tengiz oil field to produce about 800,000 tons of polyethylene annually. Construction is expected to be completed by 2016, with commercial production to begin the following year, officials said.    The two agreements were the largest-ever since South Korea and Kazakhstan forged relations in 1992, and the latest achievement of Lee's three-nation Central Asian tour that already took him to Mongolia and Uzbekistan.    In Uzbekistan, a $4 billion deal was signed to develop a massive gas field and build a chemical plant. Lee arrived in Astana on Wednesday.   During Thursday's summit talks, Lee and Nazarbayev agreed that the success of the Balkhash power plant and the Atyrau petrochemical complex will serve as a model for further expanding cooperation between the two countries and pledged to cooperate closely on them, officials said.    The two leaders also expressed satisfaction that their countries have steadily expanded cooperation and discussed ways to strengthen substantive cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, energy, resources, environment, health care, medicine, IT and agriculture, officials said.    The two sides also signed about 20 economic cooperation agreements.    Officials said that Lee has developed a close friendship with Nazarbayev as he has held summit talks with the Kazakh leader every year since taking office in 2008. This year's visit would further strengthen their personal bond, officials said.    Nazarbayev praised South Korea for playing key roles in the international community, such as last year's hosting of the G20 summit and winning the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in the alpine city of PyeongChang.    Lee also spoke highly of Kazakhstan's growing international status as shown in its hosting of last year's summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and this year's Winter Asian Games, officials said.    Lee also expressed gratitude to Nazarbayev for his decision to participate in next year's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, and the Kazakh leader promised to provide support for a successful staging of the summit, officials said.    In a display of their friendship, Lee and Nazarbayev called off several events scheduled for later in the day and spent time together at a presidential retreat outside Astana after the Kazakh leader made the suggestion, officials said. The full story is available at Yonhap News.

Growing exports by the South Korea's chemical, machinery and steel sectors increased its industrial electricity sales  steadily last month.