Mipo National Industrial Complex in Ulsan Metropolitan City visited on the 25th. Ulsan GPS, an LNG and LPG combined gas power plant located here, was producing electricity by roaring. Ulsan GPS, a subsidiary of SK Gas, uses LNG as its main fuel, but LPG is also a power plant that can be used as a power source. It has been three months since commercial operations began in earnest in December last year. The annual power generation capacity is 1.2 gigawatts (GW), which is equivalent to one nuclear power plant and can create electricity for 2.8 million households. Ulsan GPS is the world's first large GW-class power plant with such a complex structure.

The Ulsan GPS plant site was filled with green and yellow painted pipelines. These are the routes through which LNG moves in a complicated way. If natural gas is vaporized at Ulsan Korea Energy Terminal (KET), 4km away from the power plant, and high pressure is applied to send it to the GPS power plant, GPS will generate primary power by turning the gas turbine with natural gas that has lowered the pressure at the static pressure station.

Next to the Ulsan GPS power plant, two vertically stretched chimney-shaped "array recovery boilers" were also visible. The high-temperature exhaust gas emitted during the first power generation process is recovered here and recycled as a secondary fuel that turns the steam turbine. Ulsan GPS uses 100% LNG as fuel for electricity generation during normal times.

Then, if international LNG prices soar, the turbine will be turned around by quickly switching fuel to LPG after lowering LNG usage at the line where turbine operation is not stopped. It will be able to respond flexibly to LNG price volatility with the so-called "dual fuel" method.

A total of 1.4 trillion won was spent on the construction of the Ulsan GPS complex gas power plant with two gas turbines and one steam turbine. SK Gas holds a 99% stake in Ulsan GPS. Since its foundation in 1985, SK Gas has been importing, storing, and trading LPGs, but has entered the LNG sector to diversify its business.

"LNG and LPG are almost similar in terms of fuel characteristics, but their characteristics in the market are very different," said Cho Seung-ho, CEO of Ulsan GPS. "The advantage of Ulsan GPS is that it can generate electricity and maximize profits using cheap fuel." "In the future, we plan to achieve 'Net Zero' through the burning after hydrogen mixing," he stressed.

SK Gas believes that Ulsan GPS will become a new growth engine in the future 'electrification era'. It is particularly competitive in terms of location. The power plant generates electricity and transmits it through the substation, and Ulsan GPS has a straight line distance of only 700 meters from the substation. The distance between SK Gas and KET LNG Terminal, a joint venture of Korea National Oil Corporation, is also 4km.

Through KET and Ulsan GPS, SK Gas plans to complete the "LNG Value Chain" that connects LNG introduction to storage, supply, power generation and sales and leap to become a "Net Zero Solution Provider."

Yoon Byung-seok, CEO of SK Gas, said, "The core of Ulsan GPS business model lies in 'connection'," adding, "It is characterized by not only connecting LNG and LPG, but also connecting GPS and KET." He then said, "The demand for electricity has expanded due to the AI data center, and the demand for LNG for domestic industries, including Ulsan, is also high."

[Reporter Han Jaebeom in Ulsan]