All four coal-fired generators at the Sinda Power Plant (興達電廠) are to be phased out over the next five years and replaced with natural gas-powered units, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Sunday, amid protests over air pollution in Kaohsiung.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) plans to decommission all four coal-fired generators at the Sinda Power Plant within five years, the ministry said in a statement.
The No. 1 and 2 coal-fired generators are scheduled to be decommissioned in 2023 and replaced with natural gas-powered ones, it said.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
The No. 3 and 4 generators would be reserved for emergency use after the new natural gas-powered units go online in 2024, and then decommissioned by the end of 2025, it added.
Over the past five years, state-owned Taipower has been working to reduce the use of coal at the Sinda plant by more than 2 million tonnes, or 34 percent, compared with 2016, the ministry said.
On Sunday, demonstrators in Kaohsiung called for the coal-fired generators at the Sinda plant to be decommissioned immediately, saying they had been a major source of air pollution in the city for decades.
Environmental groups also called on Kaohsiung-based China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), Taiwan’s leading steel maker, to close at least one of its boilers as soon as possible.
CSC said in a statement that only three of its 12 boilers are partly coal-powered, and one of them is not in use, while the other two would stop using coal by Sept. 15, in line with the Kaohsiung City Government’s coal consumption regulations.
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