State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) has denied media reports that a proposed new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Keelung would create traffic jams and pose safety risks to one of the country’s busiest ports.
Taipower’s plans to build the new LNG terminal, the country’s fourth, are designed to accommodate the conversion of the nearby 2,000-megawatt oil-fired Hsieh-ho Power Plant into a gas-fired plant.
The utility’s initial proposal to build the terminal off the coast of Keelung’s Waimushan (外木山) was put on hold after critics said that it would endanger a coral reef.
Taipower then issued a revised proposal to move the terminal’s location from the west to the east side of the power plant, closer to the mouth of the Port of Keelung.
The plan is undergoing a preliminary environmental impact assessment.
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday published a front-page report quoting anonymous Keelung Port officials as saying that the utility was moving ahead with the plan “at all costs,” disregarding its impact on port operations so that it can meet Taiwan’s energy needs.
LNG shipments would snarl ship traffic in the port and create a risk of gas leakage or explosions, which could force a stoppage of port operations and risk injuries, the newspaper quoted the officials as saying.
Taipower yesterday strongly denied the claims in a statement, saying that a similar LNG terminal inside the Port of Taichung has received more than 1,000 gas shipments without any adverse impact on ship traffic.
The utility said it had also conducted “simulations” showing the terminal would not affect ship traffic, and pledged that as long as the facility was effectively managed, it would not pose any danger to the port.
Taiwan has in the past few years relied on an increasing number of LNG imports as it attempts to meet the government’s goal to phase out nuclear power.
LNG last year accounted for 37.2 percent of Taiwan’s energy mix — compared with only 25.46 percent in 2011 — while coal accounted for 44.30 percent, nuclear 9.55 percent, oil 1.83 percent and pumped storage hydropower 1.09 percent.
The remainder came from a variety of renewable sources, Bureau of Energy data showed.
A plan to build the country’s third LNG terminal off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) passed an environmental impact assessment in March.
The plan last year survived a national referendum to have the terminal relocated.
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