The magnitude 7.2 (ML) earthquake that struck Taiwan at 7.58am early on Wednesday morning was the largest earthquake in Taiwan in a quarter of a century. It brought to mind the 921 Earthquake in 1999 that had caused major power outages throughout the nation.
The two earthquakes had different epicenters, but were of similar magnitude.
However, looked at in terms of the impact on the electricity supply, the two earthquakes were very different, which is a measure of the many improvements that had been put in place since the Sept. 21, 1999, quake.
Wednesday’s earthquake impacted the supply from several generators and power lines belonging to independent power producers and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), but the overall power supply continued to operate as normal.
More than 350,000 households nationwide experienced power outages, but the supply had been returned to more than 95 percent of users by noon on that day.
There are two main reasons the supply shortages caused by an earthquake of this magnitude could be reinstated in such a short time and the service resumed almost seamlessly.
The first was that the grid energy storage system was able to respond quickly; the second was that other power sources, such as from pumped storage hydropower, solar power and gas, were able to quickly make up the shortfall.
This shows the importance and effectiveness of the green energy sources developed over the past few years.
This shows the importance, in addition to the effectiveness of the green energy sources developed over the past few years, of the Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan (強化電網韌性建設計畫) that Taipower has announced, in which it expects to invest NT$564.5 billion (US$17.6 billion) over a decade.
The investment is to be spent on a number of projects designed to comprehensively upgrade the national electrical grid system, including decentralization, expansion and modernization of the grid, increasing the amount of storage equipment and enhancing resilience to prevent the spread of power outages.
These projects are to be implemented to enable Taipower to respond to sudden events and maintain a stable power supply.
Despite the significant cost of the plan, the investment is needed. Wednesday’s earthquake was similar in magnitude to the 921 Earthquake of 25 years ago, and yet the impact was significantly reduced.
This was due in no small part to the resilience of Taiwan, but also shows how the grid resilience enhancements are gradually starting to pay dividends.
I have consistently emphasized nuclear power safety issues, in terms of Taiwan’s dense population, the geological situation and the risk of human error.
All of which make the risk of nuclear power considerably high and could potentially cause unimaginable environmental costs.
This recent earthquake once more shows that Taiwanese cannot be complacent in the face of the power of nature.
An earthquake is over in a matter of seconds, but its repercussions could be felt for several decades.
The changes Taipower is introducing to the energy storage system, the national grid facilities and the inbuilt resilience and responsiveness all contribute to reducing the impact on the power supply, and they are to be applauded.
Chen Ping-hei is a distinguished professor at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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