Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) announced yesterday that electricity rates for the summer months will drop by a bigger margin and that one rate level will be added to the existing three levels.
Lin made the announcement after he led officials of the state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Tai-power, 台電) in making a report to the DPP legislative caucus about its rate-cut proposal.
Presently there are three rate levels: those who use less than 110 kilowatt hours, those who use between 110 kilowatt hours and 330 kilowatt hours and those who use more than 331 kilowatt hours. A level between 331 kilowatt hours and 500 kilowatt hours will now be added.
Under the new system, a household using fewer than 110 kwh per month would pay NT$0.2 less to NT$2 per kilowatt-hour (kwh). Those using between 110kwh and 330kwh per month would pay NT$0.1 less to NT$2.6 per kilowatt-hour. Usage between the 331kwh to 500kwh per month will be subject to NT$3.3 per kilowatt hour, which will be cut by NT$0.1 per kilowatt-hour. For users in the over-500kwh bracket, the rate will remain the same at NT$3.3 per kilowatt-hour.
Lin said that the new rates will be retroactive to June 1, the start of summer electricity rates.
DPP Legislator Chao Yung-ching (趙永清) said that Taipower has a bigger surplus than expected every year and should be able to afford to cut its rates.
Chao also asked that the off-peak time span should begin earlier than 10:30pm. Taipower officials said that this would result in losses of between NT$5 billion and NT$6 billion (US$144.92 million to US$173.91 million) and would need further study.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS