Swelteringly hot weather yesterday pushed the nation’s peak electricity consumption to 36.46 gigawatts (GW), setting a new July record, data compiled by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) showed.
It was also the third-highest daily consumption figure of all time, after 36.77GW on May 30 and 36.71GW May 31, the state-run utility said.
Power demand peaked at 36.46GW at 1:44pm yesterday, with the operating reserve margin falling to 6.47 percent, Taipower data showed.
Most counties in western Taiwan experienced temperatures of more than 36°C at noon yesterday, with Yunlin County reaching the highest at 37.6°C, Central Weather Bureau data showed.
The high temperatures have reignited debate over Taiwan’s unstable power supply during summer, the peak season for power use.
Electricity consumption in May and last month has already hit record high levels.
The power supply reading is expected to be “yellow” for the rest of this month, with an estimated operating reserve margin of 6.02 percent, Taipower’s Web site showed.
The reading is likely to remain yellow next month, with an operating reserve margin of no more than 7 percent, Taipower forecast.
The company uses a five-color monitoring system to reflect the stability of the nation’s power supply.
“Orange” means that the operating reserve margin is less than 6 percent, with “red” and “black” indicating that the reserve margin is less than 900,000 kilowatts and 500,000 kilowatts respectively.
The operating reserve margin is the amount of additional power that can be drawn from operational power plants to meet power demand if a generator goes offline.
Taipower yesterday reiterated the importance of building a new coal-fired Shenao Power Plant (深澳電廠) in New Taipei City.
Taiwan would not be able to reach the power reserve margin target it set for 2025 if the government fails to begin generating power at the Shenao plant as scheduled, local media quoted Taipower spokesman Hsu Tsao-hua (徐造華) as saying.
The Shenao project has met strong opposition from local environmental groups, as well as the New Taipei City Government.
New Taipei City Government yesterday said it has filed an administrative appeal on an environmental impact assessment, urging the Cabinet to scrap the project because of its potential to cause air pollution in northern Taiwan.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
STABLE RESULTS: Despite June’s lower consolidated revenue, second-quarter sales still reached a record high, driven by demand for chips for AI applications Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$263.71 billion (US$9.02 billion) for last month, its second-lowest monthly result this year. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement that its revenue last month only fared better than the NT$260.01 billion posted in February. Last month’s figure rose 26.9 percent from a year earlier, but slumped 17.7 percent from May, the company said. However, second-quarter revenue reached NT$933.8 billion, a record high for a single quarter, company data showed. The figure represented growth of 11.26 percent from the first quarter and 38.6 percent from a year earlier. Previously, TSMC said that
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