Academics yesterday criticized the Executive Yuan’s policy stance on a draft amendment to the Electricity Act (電業法) as a “great” setback for the government’s policy to liberalize the nation’s electricity industry.
“The government’s stance represents a policy U-turn, because Taipower [Taiwan Power Co (台電)] would still monopolize the industry,” said Kimmie Wang (王京明), research fellow at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research’s (中華經濟研究院) Center for Energy and Environmental Research.
The proposed amendment would make no difference to liberalizing the industry, because non-renewable energy firms are still not allowed to enter the market to compete with Taipower, he said.
Photo: Courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
Wang’s criticism came after the Executive Yuan on Thursday outlined the draft amendment.
Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said the draft would focus on developing the “green” energy industry in its first phase as part of government efforts to reduce thermal electricity generation and carbon emissions, and to improve environmental protection.
Hsu said “renewable” energy companies and power distribution firms would be allowed to sell electricity directly to enterprises through Taipower’s distribution network or by setting up their own distribution networks.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
In the second phase, Taipower would be split into two companies — a power generation company and an electrical grid company — six years after the amendment takes effect, as part of efforts to liberalize the industry, Hsu said.
Private power generators still cannot sell their electricity to households, he said.
National Taiwan University Atmospheric Science professor Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉) said she is very disappointed that Taipower is likely to retain its monopoly in the industry.
As the Electricity Act has not been amended for nearly two decades, the government may fall short of liberalizing the industry, she said.
“The proposed amendment has ended the possibility of developing a healthy electricity industry in the nation,” she said by telephone.
Taiwan has used a feed-in tariff (FIT) program for several years in a bid to accelerate investment in “renewable” technologies by offering favorable prices to “green” energy producers.
However, if the government does not plan to initiate a sunset clause to the FIT program, Wang said many “renewable” energy producers would continue with the scheme to avoid additional costs, such as erecting power lines.
Bureau of Energy Director-General Lin Chuan-neng (林全能) said he does not think the policy is a setback for the government.
He said that the amendment is not exactly the same version the bureau drafted a few months ago, but it would still change the industry and provide stable electricity supplies.
Lin said giving the “renewable” energy industry more flexibility is a big step for the government and separating Taipower into two companies in six years would also pave the way toward liberalizing the industry.
“If the government pushes the liberalization too hard it will make it more difficult to reform the industry,” Lin said.
The bureau is to send a final version of the draft amendment to the Executive Yuan next week for approval, before submitting it to the Legislative Yuan for further review, it said.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS