The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said it was still studying how to maintain a stable electricity supply as the nation targets a reduction in carbon emissions coupled with a healthy economic development, denying a newspaper report that it was secretly working on a project to open up more power production capacity to private firms.
“The ministry has yet to decide whether to open more power plants built by private companies,” Bureau of Energy Deputy Director-General Wang Yunn-ming (王運銘) said in a statement. “The ministry will only do so when there is a concern about insufficient power supply and [the nation is facing] a threat of power rationing.”
The remark came after a report in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) said yesterday that the ministry was mulling opening to more independent power producers (IPP) at a time when the nation’s reserve margin remains way too high.
The newspaper said the new opening to IPPs to supply power to areas north of Miaoli County, if approved by the Cabinet, would mean a new power capacity of 900,000 kilowatts would come online in 2015, adding to the financial burdens to loss-making Taiwan Power Co (台電, Taipower).
The paper also speculated that the planned opening would mostly benefit Taoyuan County-based Kuo Kuang Power Co (國光電力) — which is a subsidiary of Taipower’s reinvestment entity, Taiwan Cogeneration Corp (台灣汽電共生).
Taiwan has been promoting market openings to IPPs since 1995 to allow private companies to generate and sell their power to Taipower, complementing the supply by the state-run utility amid increasing demand.
Following a first-phase opening in January 1995, the government opened the domestic market to IPPs for a second phase in August 1995, the third in January 1999 and the fourth in June 2006.
Last week, the ministry announced that effective May 15, Taipower would raise household electricity rates by an average of 16.9 percent, commercial electricity rates by 30 percent and those for industrial users by 35 percent — the first rate increase since 2008.
However, the announcement has been followed by increasing complaints about Taipower’s management efficiency, transparency in the company’s pricing and its purchasing contracts with IPPs. Opposition legislators have also criticized Taipower’s practice of maintaining a reserve margin of more than 20 percent during President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) first term, including an all-time high of 28.1 percent in 2009 — much higher than a target of 16 percent adopted by the previous Democratic Progressive Party administration.
The ministry yesterday said Taipower’s reserve margin, also known as reserve capacity, is expected to fall to below 17 percent next year from 18.1 percent this year. It was 20.6 percent last year.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
AI-FUELED DEMAND: The company has been benefiting from the skyrocketing prices for DRAM chips amid the AI frenzy, especially its core product — DDR4 DRAM chips DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported that its revenue for the first quarter surged 582.91 percent to NT$49.09 billion (US$1.54 billion) from NT$7.19 billion a year earlier, as the supply crunch caused chip price spikes. Last quarter’s figure is the highest on record. On a quarterly basis, revenue jumped 63.14 percent from NT$30.09 billion, the company said. In January, Nanya Technology expected global DRAM supply scarcity to continue through the first half of 2028, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast prices of standard DRAM chips would rise between 58 percent and 63
RSS