Taiwan’s annual energy reserve capacity margin could consistently drop to below 10 percent by 2018, as the planned power generation capacity might not meet rising domestic energy demands, sharply increasing the chance of power shortages, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower 台電) said yesterday.
The prediction of the potential shortage has been moved forward two years partly due to a delayed replacement of the Tongxiao natural gas-fired power plant (通霄電廠) in Miaoli County, the company said.
Taipower said it initially encountered difficulties in obtaining construction licenses.
“The energy reserve capacity margin could plunge to 4.8 percent by 2019 following the retirement of the second reactor of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門),” Taipower spokesman Roger Lee (李鴻洲) said at a press conference.
The annual power reserve capacity margin refers to a utility’s capacity to generate more energy than the total power system normally requires.
Taipower said it is better to maintain the reserve margin of 15 percent as insurance against breakdowns or a sudden surge in electricity demand.
Every year, Taipower releases a forecast of annual power reserve capacity for the next few years based on the nation’s electricity demand and economic growth.
Lee said this year’s reserve capacity margin is 10.4 percent, down 4.3 percentage points from last year’s 14.7 percent, due to the retirement of two power generation units of a coal-fired power plant in Linkou District (林口), New Taipei City.
Based on past records, the nation could face power rationing measures if the energy reserve margin drops below 7.4 percent, Lee said.
“To reduce the chance of power shortages, the nation has to conserve energy and the government must speed up the installation of renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power generation,” Lee said.
In a separate press conference, the Bureau of Energy said it plans to increase its power contribution to renewable energy sources from this year’s 11.6 percent to 30.7 percent by 2030.
In a bid to accelerate the diversification of Taiwan’s energy sources and deal with the increasing risk of power shortages, the bureau is to boost the target for total installed capacity of renewal energy sources to 17,250 megawatts (MW) by 2030 from the previous target of 13,750 MW, bureau Director-General Lin Chuan-neng (林全能) said.
“We plan to relax the bidding regulations for solar power and wind power installations to achieve our target,” Lin said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
RSS