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2023. April VOL. 661
- 2023. April VOL. 661
- ENG
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2023. April VOL. 661
1
K-water ranked 4th place at the 33rd Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting held in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, USA, on February 23 to 25, 2023.
The world’s most prestigious water tasting commenced in 1991 and marks its 33rd anniversary. A total of 84 teams including K-water, the U.S., Canada and Japan participated in the event, competing in five categories of municipal water, non-carbonated water, sparkling water, purified water and packaging design.
The first winners of 2023 include Canada in municipal water, Italy in non-carbonated water, Bosnia & Herzegowina in sparkling water, Taiwan in purified water and New Zealand in package design. Tap waters were evaluated on six categories including taste, odor, clarity, oral flavor, and after-taste, while K-water’s Miryang Water Treatment Plant was chosen as the 4th place winner in the category of purified drinking water, K-water’s highest-ranking spot so far, which spotlights K-water’s global recognition for its tap water quality.
K-water ranked 7th place in 2011, 2012 and 2013 at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting.
2
K-water has completed the construction of a decentralized water treatment plant in Eco Delta City(EDC) in Busan on March 3, 2023. EDC is a smart city built on an area of 11,770,000㎡(approximately 3.6 million pyong) in Gangseo-gu, Busan. K-water has built a smart water treatment plant equipped with a variety of innovative technologies to make EDC a smart water city.
The EDC smart water treatment plant will introduce the first membrane filtration-based, vertical-type water treatment system in S. Korea to supply tap water to the smart village. The system can use various different sources including streams, ground water and industrial water, with the first application of the 5G-based water treatment process to offer greater stability. K-water plans to adopt a decentralized-type water treatment plant as its future water supply model by further advancing its operational prowess.
3
The ‘First Half 2023 K-Test Bed’ Competition was held from March 13 to April 7.
The ‘K-Test Bed’ is an integrated national platform designed to support R&D on innovative ideas and field demonstration of technology and products developed by SMEs·venture startups, and to help find buyers by allowing them to use public infrastructure. K-water has been designated as the operator of the’ K-Test Bed’ project. This year, a total of 41 organizations submitted their application, including the Korea Express Corporation, Incheon International Airport Corporation and Ulsan Port Authority.
There are three categories including R&D, simple demonstration, and technology and product performance testing, with the applications to be received on the official website of the project(www.ktestbed.net). Each applicant organization will be subject to an evaluation and the results will be announced in May. The selected organizations will be able to use demonstration infrastructure for free, and will also be eligible to receive support for R&D, and technology and product demonstration.
4
K-water and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. formalized an agreement for cooperation regarding Juam and Boseonggang River Dams to overcome droughts in the Gwangju and Jeollanam-do area during a ceremony presided over by National Water Committee Chairman(Bae Deok-hyo from the Private-Sector) on March 16, 2023.
Under the agreement, the two parties discussed ways to operate Juam and Boseonggang River Dams jointly to overcome droughts at Juam Dam and to compensate Boseonggang River Dam for power generation losses.
Juam Dam managed by K-water is a multi-purpose dam that supplies water to the Gwangju·Jeollanam-do area. Amid continued rainfall shortages at Yeongsangang River·Seomjingang River, it was urgently needed to formulate measures to secure a stable supply of water. The agreement provided a concrete basis for linking the two dams for operation and providing compensation for power generation loss, thereby securing additional water sources to be depended on in case of droughts at Yeongsangang River and Seomjingang River.
5
K-water finished the modernization of Auxiliary Generator 3 of Angat Dam, and launched commercial power generation on March 25. Located 58km northeast of Manila, the Philippines, the multi-purpose dam with 218MW(MegaWatt) capacity supplies approximately 98% of tap water to Manila City.
Based upon its world-class dam management technology, K-water has taken over the generation facilities of Angat Dam in 2014, and started commercial power generation in 2014. Since then, K-water has been modernizing the facilities to enhance greater stability. Upon completion of the modernization, the dam’s generation capacity will be increased by 75GWh, which 22,590 families can use for a year. K-water will operate the power generation facilities at Angat Dam until 2039, which is expected to help K-water launch new businesses in the energy sector of the Philippines.
6
Soyanggang Dam of K-water has been selected as 2023 ‘civil engineering cultural heritage’ of the Korean Society of Civil Engineers.
At the ‘26th 2023 Civil Engineering Day’ held at the Construction Building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Soyanggang Dam was awarded with a copper plate on March 30.
The Civil Engineering Affairs Committee, which was formed this year to promote the beauty and superiority of ‘civil engineering cultural heritage of Korea’ of historic value, was responsible for evaluating and designating civil engineering heritage sites of the year. The committee announced Soyanggang Dam and Korea Expressway Corporation as the co-winners. As the first large-scale, multi-purpose dam built with domestic technology, Soyanggang Dam is the largest rockfill dam in Asia and the 4th largest in the world and a symbolic civil engineering work that made ‘the miracle on the Han River’ feasible by mitigating flood damages and ensuring a stable water supply in the Seoul metropolitan area. The recognition of the dam as civil engineering cultural heritage is expected to better spotlight the technological, economic and social meaning and value of the dam that marks its 50th anniversary.
