Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Wednesday that the government would do its best to maintain a stable electricity supply, but added that it would not be an easy task due to the goal of reducing the use of nuclear and coal-fired power.
As part of efforts to end the use of nuclear power by 2025, the government has said that the service life of the nation’s three operational nuclear power plants “will definitely not” be extended, Lin said.
The government hopes to gradually reduce the nation’s reliance on nuclear power and has instructed state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to suspend operation of the No. 1 reactor at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) and the No. 2 reactor at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) ahead of the end of their service life, he said.
While the absence of the two reactors has tightened supply, with operating reserve margins dropping to 4 percent to 5 percent this summer, the nation’s electricity supply remains operational, he added.
The No. 1 reactor at Jinshan was scheduled to be decommissioned in December next year, but has not been in use since December 2014, while the No. 2 reactor at Guosheng was scheduled to be decommissioned in March 2023, but has been offline since the middle of last year.
Taipower also faces the challenge of restricting coal-fired power generation to reduce air pollution, Lin said.
The government is working hard to quickly transform the nation’s energy structure, which is a lofty goal, he said, but added: “This does not mean it is not attainable.”
Regarding Tuesday’s power outage, attributed to human error at a natural gas-fired power plant in Taoyuan’s Datan Township (大潭), Lin said that while former minister of economic affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) was not at fault in the incident, Lee had to assume political responsibility.
Lin immediately accepted Lee’s resignation in the wake of the blackout, which affected more than 6 million households in 17 cities and counties.
The government will determine the responsibility of Taipower and state-owned refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan once an investigation establishes the facts, Lin said.
The blackout was caused by a shutdown of all six generators at Datan Natural Gas Power Plant after their supply of natural gas was cut off for two minutes because of a mistake made during maintenance at a nearby CPC metering station, Taipower said.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS