POSCO Energy, a unit of POSCO, said Monday that it has entered the coal-fired power generation business by launching Pospower. The nation’s largest independent power company had previously focused on gas-fired thermal power.

Pospower, formerly Tong Yang Power, which POSCO Energy acquired last June for 431.1 billion won ($421.8 million), has a business license to build and operate two 1-million-kilowatt capacity coal-fired thermal power plants in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, by 2021.

Under the renewed development plan, the company will begin building the first power plant in 2016 after completing an evaluation of the environmental impact.

POSCO Energy said it would apply state-of-the-art technology to the mega power plant project to minimize the impact on the environment, while investing in the development of the local community.

(jyseo@heraldcorp.com)