The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a bill to authorize a repeatable fine of up to NT$750,000 for top electricity users whose renewable energy capacities do not meet regulatory requirements, although it exempts current heavy users.
The Energy Administration Act (能源管理法) amendments are now headed to President William Lai’s (賴清德) desk.
Taiwanese law mandates that industrial power users with contract capacity of at least 5 megawatts must install renewables capable of generating at least 10 percent of their contract capacity.
Photo: CNA
In May, the Cabinet proposed amendments adding further requirements for self-use power generation and energy storage equipment.
Lawmakers passed the bill without contest, in a rare show of consensus across the political divide.
The amendments stipulate that new electricity users whose contracted energy capacity meets or exceeds a certain threshold must generate renewable energy or install power storage systems for part of their own use.
While the Cabinet had sought to include current heavy energy users in the bill, the final version passed yesterday limits the scope to only newly established or expanding large energy consumers — a change that has been criticized by environmental groups such as Greenpeace.
The authority tasked with implementing the act is empowered to determine the specific legal threshold of contract capacity and the required installed capacity of renewables and energy storage to electricity use.
Regulators should warn entities that did not install renewable energy or power storage systems or had installed systems that failed to meet government standards before imposing sanctions.
Energy users who did not heed warnings would be punished with a fine of NT$150,000 to NT$750,000, and failure to comply would incur repeated penalties.
Changes to the law are to require top power consumers to appoint a qualified energy management specialist, and failure to comply would result in a NT$100,000 to NT$500,000 fine, up from NT$20,000 to NT$100,000.
Regulators would also name enterprises that endanger the public or negatively affect consumer rights with their energy consumption.
Energy suppliers would be required to publish power sales data for public and government scrutiny to facilitate energy policy, but considerations must be made to protect privacy, the amendments state.
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