Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) June order to reactivate the fallow No. 1 reactor at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) was prompted mainly by a power shortage “crisis” engineered by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), according to former national policy adviser Rex How (郝明義).
How on Saturday said on Facebook that he suspected that Taipower deliberately ordered 10 percent of the nation’s aging electricity generators to undergo annual repairs on May 31, when the mercury hit 37.3°C, pushing the nation to the brink of a power shortage.
With power rationing on the horizon, Lin ordered Taipower to reactivate the Jinshan plant’s No. 1 reactor, which had been unused for 18 months, How said.
The decision triggered protests from groups that advocate a nuclear-free Taiwan, which President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has pledged to bring about.
In the post, How cited Taipower data saying that on May 31, Taipower’s peak supply was 34.99 gigawatts (GW), just 0.57GW above the peak consumption of power that day.
How then quoted Taipower chairman Chu Wen-chen (朱文成) as saying that his company was able to function that day because business clients were encouraged to save 0.4GW in consumption under a program offering incentives to industrial users that cut electricity use during peak hours.
However, 3.14GW of electricity output — 9 percent of peak supply on May 31 — was unavailable because of the scheduled repair and maintenance of many old generators at various power plants, How said.
“With nearly 10 percent of the nation’s power generators being repaired as part of annual maintenance how could it not put pressure on power supplies?” How asked.
He said Taipower certainly knew that the weather begins to get hotter in May.
“So why did it arrange for annual repairs that would affect 10 percent of power generators late in May? … If it had not done that, would it have to ‘borrow’ 0.4GW of electricity from business clients? Doesn’t this mean that Taipower itself deliberately created a crisis of power shortage?” How wrote.
His accusation drew mixed responses from netizens.
One called his attention to the fact that most of Taiwan’s power generators require an average of one to two months of repairs per year, which means between 8.3 percent and 16.6 percent of them are undergoing maintenance at any given time.
“How would do better to understand that the ‘industrial traits’ of these numbers indicate a good performance rather than something to blame on the part of Taipower,” the netizen wrote.
“Will How give Taipower some advice on which months are the best for the annual repair of the generators?” another netizen wrote.
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