The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said power supply is likely to remain stable this year as energy from two new gas-fired power generators is expected to offset the loss of output of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 2 reactor after it is retired today upon reaching its service lifetime of 40 years.
The loss of the reactor in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) has triggered concerns about possible blackouts and power supply interruptions.
“To handle the shutdown of the No.2 reactor, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is adding two new gas-powered generators, which together can provide a combined capacity of 1,300 megawatts, surpassing the 935-megawatt capacity from the No.2 nuclear reactor,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said at a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
“There should be no power storage problem this year,” she added.
The new coal-fired generator at the Datan Power Plant in Taoyuan is expected to be connected to the grid next month, and run at its full capacity of 1,120 megawatts in July or August, Wang said.
A smaller coal-fired generator in Miaoli’s Tongsiao Township (通宵) was connected to Taipower’s grid in January, she said.
Taipower last year was ahead of schedule on maintenance of two generators, reducing pressure on the allocation of power capacity, Wang said.
The generators are to return to use by the end of next month, contributing a combined 7,110 megawatts to the power grid, she said.
Renewable energy is also to increase its share to the grid this year, Wang said.
Solar energy is to contribute about 500 megawatts during the day, while the Deji Reservoir (德基水庫) in central Taiwan is expected to provide about 1,147.3 megawatts of hydroelectric power at night, she said.
The reservoir’s level is at 63 percent capacity, indicating a reduced risk of a water shortage this year, she added.
The new coal-fired generators would allow for stable power supply, Taipower spokesman Wu Chin-chung (吳進忠) said, adding that last year’s outages were caused by human error and weather.
However, power generation costs are rising and adding pressure to Taipower’s already strained finances, Wu said.
Separately, Wang said the failure of US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is unlikely to affect Taiwan as the US government has enacted measures to ensure protection of deposits.
On the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee yesterday, Wang said the problems resulting from the SVB’s financial woes would be well handled, as US regulators acted promptly.
The local banking, insurance and securities industries have no exposure through their own funds to SVB, the Financial Supervisory Commission said last week.
Additional reporting by CNA
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS