Taihan Electric Wire Co.,Ltd. (CEO : Lim Chong-Wook) is constructing an electric wire factory with a factory space of 104,124 ㎡ on a site covering 360,327 ㎡ in Dangjin, Chungcheongnam-do.

Scheduled for completion in 2011, the Dangjin factory, said to be the world’s largest for a single factory, will produce everything from high-quality wire material to high-voltage cable. Taihan Electric Wire will invest a total of KRW 300 billion in building state-of-the-art production and test facilities to strengthen its global quality and price competitiveness, utilizing the advanced technology and extensive know-how it has accumulated over half a century.

The Dangjin factory is regarded as a ‘Green Factory’ as it will conform to low-carbon green growth principles including high-energy efficiency, new recycled energy utilization, and thorough environmental management.

The consumption of fossil fuel energy will be minimized by using solar cell power generation, and a new recycled energy system which utilizes sunlight for natural lighting will be developed. Such initiatives will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2012 compared to 2008 levels.

Taihan Electric Wire is leading the development of new, environmentally-friendly products such as enameled copper-wire cable and wind-power cable at such environmentally-friendly factories, and is conducting continuous research and development. In particular, it is consolidating its position as a low-carbon green-growth leader by developing a carbon inventory for all its sites around the world and placing a ‘carbon label’ on all its products.

Taihan Electric Wire is also aggressively penetrating the global markets. It won an ultra-high voltage power line turn-key project for St. Petersburg and other major Russian cities in October 2008, followed by large ultra-high-voltage power line development projects in New York, San Diego (more than USD 100 million), and Kuwait (USD 140 million) in February and April of this year, respectively.

These successes confirm Taihan’s position as a major supplier of ultra-high-voltage power lines not only in leading power line markets such as the USA, Australia and Russia, but also in emerging markets in the Middle East and Asia. The company is also trying to develop new markets, as indicated by its export of OPGW and conventional power cables to South American markets over the last five years.

Since suspended transmission lines are still in wide demand in South America, as the region has a large amount of land compared to its population, the demand for underground lines is expected to increase due to ongoing urbanization. Accordingly, the company plans to strengthen its sales activities in the region. With an annual average growth rate of more than 30% in ultra-high-voltage cable over the last few years, Taihan Electric Wire plans to concentrate on R&D on and productivity improvement of ultra-high-voltage and optical communication cable.

At the same time, it will strengthen its global competitiveness by aggressively penetrating additional markets in South America and other regions.

Taihan Electric Wire is improving its profitability and competitiveness by expanding its share of the markets for ultra-high-voltage lines and optical communication cables, which are expected to be the future growth engines of the electric wire industry. It is also carrying out both short-term and long-term development plans by identifying strategic items in the smart grid that are likely to be key elements of future growth.

Taihan Electric Wire has already developed the following products related to the smart grid.

◇ OPSW (Optical Fiber Composite Suspension Wire)
OPSW has communication function and suspension support for power distribution automation. It is possible to accommodate the increase in communication volume due to bidirectional communication between power suppliers and consumers in the future.

◇ Enameled Copper Wire Cable
It is improved 20% in transmission capacity compared with conventional wire by insulating the strands to reduce the resistance of conductors through the skin effect.

Taihan Electric Wire won the 400kV Enameled Copper Wire Cable turnkey project, worth USD 140million, from Kuwait in March 2009. In order to expand global enameled copper wire cable market is anticipated.

◇ TMS (Total Monitoring System)
It is a comprehensive monitoring system designed to monitor the status of underground cable which includes distributed temperature sensing, dynamic allowed capacity calculation, partial discharge monitoring technology, etc.

Taihan Electric Wire won the ‘North Jeonju-Palbong’ project, Korea’s first direct buried-type project, from KEPCO.

◇ Remote Terminal Unit
Taihan Techren, a new recycled energy subsidiary of Taihan Electric Wire succeeded in developing RTU, which enables the optimum power generation environment by measuring solar radiation, temperature, wind force and wind speed in the locality, in addition to the power generated by solar cell power generators. The product was verified by performance testing conducted by the Korea Energy Management Corporation. This product will be the key component of next-generation total monitoring systems and wind power generation.

Based on the developed products and systems, Taihan Electric Wire will implement its short-term (up to 2012) and long-term (after 2012) plans to upgrade the systems and develop new products. (The plan can be modified according to the smart grid road map of the government and the relevant agencies.)

The short-term plan is focused on the development of an optical composite enameled copper wire cable that adds optical fiber to Korea’s first developed enameled copper wire cable, a 3-core AC power distribution optical fiber composite cable, a DC power distribution optical fiber composite cable and an optical fiber composite overhead cable, an AC underground power transmission total monitoring system using the existing underground power transmission total monitoring system, a smart meter with a built-in AMI function, and an automatic remote meter reader using the smart meter.

Such products, by incorporating optical fibers, will add a communication function to conventional power cables and lines. They will also enhance the convenience of various procedures related to the supply of electricity, water and gas via the integration of the upgraded smart remote meter reading system.

The long-term plan includes the development of an ultra-high-voltage DC transmission optical fiber composite cable and an overhead optical fiber composite cable, a DC transmission/distribution cable total monitoring system and an overhead/underground total monitoring system, and a problem area detection system using GPS.