The Executive Yuan has approved measures to liberalize the power market and break up state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), as well as increase the number of public kindergartens by 1,000 by 2020 to expand childcare coverage and increase women’s participation in the workforce.
The Executive Yuan yesterday passed an amendment of the Electricity Act (電業法) that would deregulate the power market and promote “green” energy.
The proposal calls for Taipower to transform into a holding company with subsidiaries.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
According to the draft amendments, “green” energy firms will be allowed to sell and transmit electricity to users directly, with pricing being freely negotiated between generating companies and clients, Bureau of Energy Director-General Lin Chuan-neng (林全能) said.
Currently, firms can only sell power to Taipower, Lin said.
Businesses will be permitted to operate traditional power plants, but they can only sell electricity to Taipower, he said.
To complete the separation of power generation and electricity distribution, Taipower has to be divided into subsidiary companies in six to nine years following the passage of the draft amendment by the Legislative Yuan, with a company responsible for power generation and another for distribution and retailing, Lin said.
The “public electricity retailing industry,” which is to be composed of Taipower spinoffs, would be obliged to supply power to the public, which will also have the choice to purchase “green” energy, he said, adding that “non-renewable” electricity rates would be regulated to offset price fluctuations due to global fuel costs.
The Executive Yuan was planning an across-the-board liberalization to deregulate both the traditional and renewable energy markets, but the latest amendment is mainly focused on the “green” energy sector, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
The traditional power sector would be liberalized in the next round of legislation to allow operators to freely enter electricity retailing, Hsu said.
“The government has adopted a gradual approach to liberalization to prevent the legislation from being stalled,” he said.
The legislation is necessary, as Taipower’s monopoly of the industry is what is prohibiting rapid growth in the renewable energy industry, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said, adding that it is the government’s priority to liberate the “green” energy market during this legislative session.
“Criticism saying that the legislation would lead to higher electricity prices and the monopolization of the power market by business groups is incorrect,” Hsu quoted the premier as saying.
“The percentage of green energy in the nation’s power grid is too low and even if the price of green energy increases several times over [following the liberalization], it would not affect electricity supply,” Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) said.
Hydroelectric and nuclear power plants will continue to be state-run.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan is to budget NT$6.2 billion (US$196.6 million) to establish 1,000 kindergartens in the next four years.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said the plan is to boost the number of “non-profit kindergartens” — facilities run privately on refurbished public properties — and public kindergartens.
The plan is expected to raise the percentage of children enrolled in public or non-profit kindergartens from 30 percent to 40 percent by 2020, Pan said.
“The measure will provide affordable childcare to allow women to enter the workforce,” Pan said.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS