Nuke plant cancellation may leave power vacuum

As it looks increasingly likely that construction of the Fourth Nuclear Plant will be cancelled, attention is turning toward who will take up the slack of the plant's projected generation capacity, with the Taiwan Power Co (台電) suggesting that the power production sector be opened further.

Taipower, which has already spent around NT$40 billion in building the nuclear plant, told the Taipei Times yesterday that if the construction of the nuclear plant is halted, more independent power producers (IPPs) should be allowed into the market.

This plan echoes the course of action suggested in a report forwarded by the Ministry of Econo-mic Affairs (經濟部) to Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) over the weekend on possible "alternative" plans for power generation if construction is halted. The ministry's report also states that estimated losses -- including the around NT$50 billion in compensation for cancelled contracts with foreign firms -- would amount to NT$90 billion, which would be borne out over five years in raised electricity prices.

Both Taipower and the report said that IPPs should be encouraged to set up natural gas-fired power stations along the west coast to help fill the projected 2,700-megawatt vacuum left by the uncompleted nuclear plant.

This shortfall in power, while not directly affecting the country's overall supply, will contribute to northern Taiwan's expected power shortfall of around 2,550 megawatts by 2007, according to the Taipower.

But due to the dense population in northern Taiwan and a general lack of space, Taipower said it was unlikely that more power plants could be built there and that the majority of the power for the region will still have to be supplied by stations in the central and southern areas of the country.

The long-term validity of this scheme would in turn depend on the speed with which Taipower can construct a fourth extra-high voltage transmission cable to carry the additional power from south to north; a project that is still "some way off" from completion, said a company spokesman.

Of the 11 IPPs that have been approved by the government to produce power in Taiwan, only the Formosa Plastic Group's (台塑) Mailiao plant and Everpower's (長生電力) Taoyuan plant are up and running. While only two generators at the Mailiao plant are currently in operation, Formosa is hoping to eventually install seven generators -- producing a total of around 4,200 megawatts -- while Everpower's plant is expected to be producing around 900 megawatts by the end of the year.

More than eager to step up to the plate, Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) chairman of Formosa, has suggested that by scrapping the nuclear plant and investing in thermal a plant, the government could reduce the size of the expected NT$90 billion loss of cancelling the nuclear plant. Building a thermal plant with the same capacity as the nuclear plant would cost only NT$50 billion, coming in at more than NT$30 billion less than it would cost to complete the nuclear plant, whose cost was seen at over NT$170 billion, Wang said.