South Korea’s Kyungdong City Gas Co. will invest more than 100 billion won ($94 million) to build a hydrogen power station to expand its renewable energy portfolio.

The city gas supplier operating in the southeastern cities of Ulsan and Yangsan said Tuesday it is in the final stages of securing a site for a hydrogen power station that will generate 20 megawatt (MW) of electricity per hour. The new plant will take hydrogen produced from liquefied natural gas (LNG) to generate heat and electricity.

This is Kyungdong’s second foray into renewable energy after its waste heat recovery power plant that became operational last year. Electricity in this plant is generated from steam produced from the waste heat at S-Oil’s Onsan refinery in Ulsan. The waste heat recovery plant - the first of its kind in Korea - generates 17.4 MW of electricity per hour or 146 gigawatt hour (GWh) per year, enough to power 8,000 households for a year. This also has the effect of cutting carbon emissions by 60,000 tons annually.

Kyungdong said it is pursuing a wide array of businesses including LNG terminals, pipeline leases and power plants. From April, it will become Korea’s first gas supplier to lease LNG pipelines to S-Oil’s Onsan refinery.

The firm, hit by an LNG price slide and a prolonged economic downturn, saw its revenue dwindle from 2.6 trillion won in 2013 to 2.3 trillion won in 2014, 1.3 trillion won in 2015 and 1.0 trillion won in 2016. But it made a dramatic turnaround in 2017 thanks to rising LNG prices and a rebound in the Ulsan petrochemical industrial complex, with its revenue jumping to 4.7 trillion won in the first three quarters. Its operating profit was 46 billion won in 2013, 37 billion won in 2014, 18 billion won in 2015 and 23 billion won in 2016. The company has not revealed its operating profit for full 2017 yet.

As of 2:48 p.m, shares of Kyundong City Gas were up 3.9 percent at 38,600 won.

By Seo Dae-hyun and Kim Hyo-jin

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