Peak electricity consumption in Taiwan reached a record high for a second day in a row yesterday, rising to 38.40 gigawatts (GW) as a combination of high temperatures, a strong economy and people working and learning from home pushed usage past a previous high in July last year, Taiwan Power Co (台電, Taipower) said.
Thursday also surpassed last year’s record, with a peak of 38.02GW, the company said.
Taipower spokesman Chang Ting-shu (張廷舒) said this month’s uncharacteristically hot weather and increased electricity use due to people working and studying from home amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert contributed to yesterday’s record.
Photo: CNA
“We generally expect a peak in July, the height of the summer, but it has been an exceptionally hot and dry May, and we do not know how climate change might affect temperatures in the years to come,” Chang said.
Five of the top 10 peak use days have been this month, a phenomenon Chang described as “highly unusual.”
Taipower’s spinning reserve capacity, electricity production that can be ramped up on demand, was just 6.06 percent yesterday, barely clearing the 6 percent threshold for a “yellow” alert.
It has been difficult to keep the spinning reserve capacity above 10 percent, or “green,” with this month’s increased usage, he added.
“We are endeavoring to keep the power supply steady, even under a ‘yellow’ alert, through careful maintenance of power generation units and good communication with large users,” he said.
Large users, typically industrial users, are given incentives to shift power use to off-peak times.
“We are doing the best we can to keep the grid healthy and power production steady,” Chang said. “We hope that Taiwanese can work together to save power, because every kilowatt-hour counts.”
Solar power helped Taiwan through yesterday’s peak, adding more than 3,000 megawatts between 10:30am and 1:30pm, or 8 to 9 percent of the power in the grid, providing stability when it was needed most, he said.
Taipower hopes that with the approach of a monsoon weather front, power demand will decrease as temperatures drop, but people must still conserve electricity this summer, Chang said.
Taipower recommends setting air conditioners to about 28°C, or using fans instead, he said.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS