State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is to increase the number of electrical circuits on transmission towers to improve the durability of the nation’s power grid, Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) said yesterday.
The improvement is part of a slew of measures being taken to protect the nation’s power facilities from natural disasters, he said.
“The power grid’s exposure risk is greater than that of power plants during natural disasters... We have asked Taipower to propose improvement plans,” Lee told reporters before the Ministry of Economic Affair’s weekly meeting.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Cement Corp
The majority of the power supply warnings issued by Taipower since the 921 Earthquake in 1999 were caused by disruptions to the power grid rather than problems with power generaton, Lee said.
Almost all of the transmission towers in the nation are equipped with one electrical circuit each, which makes the power grid vulnerable to external forces, Taipower said.
The company has yet to decide whether to add electrical circuits to all towers or select a few areas to improve the power grid, as the plan involves a large investment, Lee said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs
Adding new circuits to high-voltage towers might require personnel to work in the mountains and traverse national parks, which adds to operational difficulties, he added.
Increasing the electricity contribution from renewable sources is one of several measures to spread risk, as “green” energy facilities supply power to a smaller number of users in a designated area, which makes the power grid more resilient as transmission lines are shorter, Lee said.
The ministry’s priority is to restore the power supply from the privately-run Ho-Ping Power Co (和平電力), after a transmission tower in Yilan County collapsed on Saturday due to severe weather brought by Typhoon Nesat, Lee said.
The ministry aims to enhance the power transmission infrastructure there, he said.
Taipower finished building temporary power lines yesterday and sent equipment to the Dongao (東澳) area to repair the tower, Lee said, adding that the company would build a double-circuit temporary transmission tower instead of a single-circuit tower.
Ho-Ping Power is inspecting the condition of the power generators at the plant, as they might have been damaged when power transmission was abruptly cut while they were working at full capacity, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yang Wei-fu (楊偉甫) said.
The ministry estimates that Ho-Ping Power will resume electricity generation on Sunday next week at the earliest, Yang said.
The power plant generates 1.3 million kilowatts, or about 4 percent of the nation’s operating reserve margin. It mainly supplies power to northern Taiwan.
The nation’s operating reserve margin is estimated to drop to 4.43 percent today, which means power supply remains tight, Taipower data showed.
The margin is expected to fall to 2.41 percent on Wednesday and Thursday, meaning it will be lower than 900,000 kilowatts, Taipower 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
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
RSS