Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict.
The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year.
Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent need to ramp up coal-fired generation in the short term.
Photo: Taipei Times
The state-run utility plans to add the No. 1 and No. 3 coal-fired generators from next month through July, a Taipower spokesperson said by telephone yesterday.
The two generators each have an installed capacity of 500,000 kilowatts, the spokesperson said.
“As the development of Middle East war remains unclear, Taipower decided to follow the step of neighboring nations to expand coal-fired power in the short term in a bid to help CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) strengthen its flexibility of LNG supply,” Taipower said in a statement.
To safeguard energy security, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines have expanded coal-fired power to cope with increasing LNG supply risks and to avert the impact of inflation on higher power generation costs, the statement said.
“The government is making all-out efforts to dispatch LNG supply. Supply remains sufficient currently, allowing all LNG-fired generators to operate as scheduled,” it said.
The latest power generation arrangement came as the Middle East conflict continues to weigh on global energy supplies after the world’s important LNG production facilities were damaged, Taipower said.
It would be difficult to restore the production facilities soon, it said.
Iran attacked LNG plants in Qatar two weeks ago, knocking out 17 percent of the nation’s LNG capacity. It could take years for LNG production return to full capacity.
Taiwan sources LNG from diversified regions with about one-third coming from Qatar and 60 to 70 percent from other nations.
Taipower said that the short-term activation of the two coal-fired generators at Mailiao Power Plant would not significantly boost its total coal consumption this year.
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