Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said that it would reduce coal consumption at the Taichung Power Plant to 12.6 million tonnes by the end of this year, while aiming to provide a stable electricity supply for Taiwanese companies returning to invest in the country.
“We are currently setting the goal at 12.6 million tonnes [of coal] for the Taichung Power Plant this year, which is much lower than our original goal of 16 million tonnes last year,” Taipower spokesman Hsu Tsao-hua (徐造華) told reporters at a media luncheon.
Although the number is regarded as relatively easy to achieve, as the plant consumed 12.64 million tonnes of coal last year, Hsu said it could be a hard feat for the company as it seeks to increase electricity generation due to Taiwan’s increasingly hot summers.
Taipower would also need to accommodate growing electricity consumption from Taiwanese companies setting up production facilities nationwide, Taipower chairman Yang Wei-fuu (楊偉甫) said.
“We need to be fully prepared, as we expect power consumption to peak between next year and 2022 based on data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Energy,” Yang said, adding that the company would increase the proportion of electricity generated by natural gas.
Last month, the Taichung City Government revoked the operating licenses for two of the Taichung Power Plant’s coal-fired generators, after accusing it of contributing to the city’s poor air quality.
“The shutdown of two of our generators has led to a decline of 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent in our power reserve margin, which we seek to keep above 10 percent,” Yang said, adding that the company has applied to appeal the Taichung City Government’s decision.
Meanwhile, Yang said that increases in energy consumption would mainly come from semiconductor firms such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
The company would strive toward reaching the government’s goal of abolishing nuclear power by 2025 and increasing energy from renewable sources to 20 percent of all power generated, Yang said.
Renewable energy sources, including hydropower, solar power, biowaste, geothermal energy and offshore wind power, contributed to about 5.6 percent of the total power generated in Taiwan in the first 10 months of last year, Bureau of Energy data showed.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS