Thu, Jul 28, 2016 page4

• EPA to ease natural-gas power rules

  LESS ‘RED,’ ‘PURPLE’: Environmental engineering professor Tsuang Ben-jei said that boosting gas power output to replace coal would help reduce pollution peaks

  • By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
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  The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is to amend regulations to allow natural-gas power plants to operate at full capacity amid times of high pollution to allow cuts to coal-fired energy generation, which academics said could help reduce air pollution.

  The agency on Monday proposed draft amendments to the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) to allow natural-gas power plants and low-emission power generation facilities to operate at full capacity in times of high pollution, while those plants will be exempt from punishment, even if emissions exceed what is permitted by their licenses.

  The nation has about a dozen privately owned gas power plants and according to their operating licenses, emissions are generally limited to half of a plant’s maximum output capacity.

  Gas-fired plants are believed to be cleaner than coal-fired power plants in terms of emissions, but gas power plants usually run in summer and are idle in winter, when the nation’s air pollution is most severe.

  The draft amendments are part of EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan’s (李應元) pledge to reduce “red level” incidents by half in four years.

  According to the EPA’s four-color categorization of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — “red” is the second-most severe level, corresponding to PM2.5 levels of 59 to 64 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m3), while “purple” is the most severe level, corresponding to PM2.5 levels higher than 71mg/m3.

  Academics have urged the government to lower coal-fired plant output during times of high pollution, and the Taichung City Government has on several occasions this year asked Taichung Power Plant to reduce its output in an attempt to offset high pollution.

  National Chung Hsing University professor of environmental engineering Tsuang Ben-jei (莊秉潔) yesterday said that the proposed lifting of emission limits for gas plants during times of high pollution has long been proposed as a means to reduce air pollution.

  Gas plants are forced to stay idle for increasing periods of time each year because the government chooses to use coal energy, which is cheaper, Tsuang said.

  “For the first time in history, Taichung Power Plant lowered its output in January ahead of a forecasted air pollution episode, which helped prevent a purple-level incident,” said Tsuang, who is an expert on air pollution simulation. “If gas power output can be boosted to replace coal power on a regular basis, the nation would theoretically have fewer purple and red-level incidents.”

  However, emissions from coal-fired plants are not expected to be significantly lowered in the years to come because of the reduction of nuclear power, he said.

  “This year is a tough one and we still have to put up with much coal burning, because a reactor at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant [in New Taipei City’s Wanli District, 萬里] has remained shut down due to maintenance problems,” he said.

  To deal with the planned decommissioning of two nuclear power plants, Taiwan Power Co’s power expansion program plans to build several coal-fired generators in four years to generate 4 gigawatts of electricity per year, which would be 80 percent of the capacity of the Taichung plant.

  “It is unlikely that the nation would see a significant drop in coal power output in the next four years,” he said. “The government should focus on developing clean energy.”
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