Wesley's Tool-Box

It seems that I'm traveling quite a lot this year. Less than two months after going around London, I've come to Manila, Philippines a few hours ago. This is me in Baclaran at lunch time.


It has quite a different landscape, but the weather is surprisingly tolerable. The KPX employees including me are going to be doing some volunteering work in the country this week.

Most public corporations in Korea were naturally situated in or near Seoul, the capital city. But to promote a more balanced growth in other regions, these companies are being spread out, relocating to newly-built "innovation cities". There is one in every province.

The one in South Jeolla Province (Jeollanam-do) is called Bitgaram City, and is located in the middle of the vast rice fields in Naju. This is where headquarters of many electricity-related companies, including KPX (where I work) and KEPCO are being moved to. All the companies will have completed the move by the end of 2014.


At the end of July, most of the buildings looked mostly complete, at least as far as the structural shape was concerned. KEPCO's new 31-story building is the tallest of them all, and is easily recognizable from far away because Naju is mostly "flat" throughout. But other buildings have certain futuristic looks to them and stand out of the landscape as well.

In the case of KPX, its new HQ building was basically complete a month ago. It is now waiting for the new Energy Management System and CBP-based Electricity Trading System to finish testing and the whole workforce to move in. This will happen at the end of September, less than two months from now. From then on, I will start living in Naju as well, ending 6 years of residence in Suwon. I await with hope and a bit of uncertainty.

Drax power plant is the biggest in the United Kingdom, with about 4,000MW capacity provided by six 670MW units. It used to run only on coal, but one of the units is now fully run on biomass, with a second one on 95:5 biomass-coal mix. This is driven through environmental concerns. I visited this place with my fellow trainees for an on-site case study.


While most people were familiar with the concept of thermal power plants, the fact that such a high-capacity unit could be run solely on biomass, and that it's utilizing condensers installed in parallel to the turbines instead on the bottom were met with fascination. All in all, an interesting insights to how UK is moving forward with its generation.

I'm visiting the Royal Observatory Greenwich, where the Greenwich Meridian is located. It became the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) 130 years ago, in 1884.

I've visited this place before, but it feels fresh every time. Maybe it's because I come here every decade or so.

Last month's London visit was a part of preparing for this trip - a three-week training near Paddington Station with about 20 people. I will be both a trainee and a coordinator. Things are okay so far.


Meanwhile, a reenactment of the royalties taking a walk in the park is in progress. That was interesting to watch. It should be a nice counterpart to what I'll be seeing in London.