Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is looking into potential sites to store enough coal to generate up to 50 days of electricity in the event Taiwan faces a blockade or war, a source said on Saturday.
Government regulations require the utility to store up to 30 days of coal, but Taipower generally maintains a reserve of 40 to 42 days.
However, following China’s drills in August last year, during which it imposed a partial blockade around Taiwan proper, the company might further increase its coal storage to 50 days, the source said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
Another reason is rising coal inventories due to the nation’s transition to clean energy, as well as some coal-fired power plants shutting down during winter to reduce air pollution, they said.
“If a coal shipment arrives at a port and existing stocks have not been depleted, this causes port congestion,” the source said.
“However, Taipower has only just started looking for storage sites and it would take at least a year to conduct a feasibility study on the plan,” the source said.
The company wants to find a site near a coal-fired power plant, particularly one like the ultra-supercritical plant in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the source said.
“Another option would be Taichung Power Plant. It will decommission its coal burners and switch to natural gas, but the coal burners would be used as a backup if the need arises,” the source said.
However, Taipower would not restart coal plants in areas where they have caused public discontent, and any restarted plants would use ash ponds to reduce the amount of airborne pollutants, the source said.
Taipower hopes that the central government would subsidize the expenses that would arise from expanding coal storage capacity, especially as the plan would improve national security, the source added.
Separately, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油), which maintains stocks of liquefied natural gas (LNG), said it has a combined stock of 100 days of LNG across all of its facilities nationwide — exceeding the mandated minimum of 90 days.
However, to improve energy security, the company would install additional storage tanks at receiving stations, including those at Taoyuan’s Guantang Industrial Park (觀塘工業區), Kaohsiung’s Yongan Port (永安) and the terminal in Taichung.
The additional tanks would increase storage capacity at each facility from 16 days to 24 days, the company said.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
The government-funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is to be expanded to boys at junior-high school starting in September, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. The Taiwan Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Taiwan Immunization Vision and Strategy, the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Head and Neck Society, the Formosa Cancer Foundation and the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents Associations held a joint news conference in Taipei yesterday to raise public awareness about the risks of HPV infection, regardless of gender. Invited to give an address, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun
RSS