An unpublished report by state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) said that the nation could have a positive electricity reserve margin even without nuclear power plants — an estimate that differs from the previous prediction — which was described as an energy policy U-turn following the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) election victory.
According to a Central News Agency report on Monday, Taipower said it could manage a positive energy reserve margin in the next eight years if the three operating nuclear power plants are decommissioned on schedule and a mothballed plant remains shuttered, which contradicted the company’s energy report last year, which predicted that the reserve margin would be shortfalls of 1.6 percent and 3 percent in 2023 and 2024 in the event of a nuclear power phase-out.
The new estimate was criticized as a U-turn to meet the DPP’s nuclear-free policy — which seeks to eliminate nuclear power generation by 2025 — as the new outlook came just two days after the party clinched a landslide victory in the presidential and legislative elections on Saturday.
Taipower spokesman Hsiao Jin-yi (蕭金益) yesterday confirmed the company’s new estimate without specifying the exact figures of the reserve margin, which he said would be released later.
“The latest correction [of the electricity reserve margin] was not made because of a change in government, but because since last year’s report, the general economic environment and public awareness of energy conservation have changed, while the company has come up with solutions to avoid power shortages,” he said.
The reserve margin went from negative to positive because economic growth has been predicted to slow and energy conservation awareness has been on the rise, so the company adjusted the nation’s power demand downward, Hsiao said.
The development of sources of renewable energy and the expansion and upgrade of facilities at power plants in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港), Miaoli’s Tongsiao Township (通霄) and Taoyuan’s Datan Township (大潭) would boost the reserve margin, he said.
“Taipower would be useless if it had a negative reserve margin and did nothing about it. The adjustment had nothing to do with the elections,” he said.
Although the operating margin went from negative to positive, the risk of power shortages still exists, as the margin remains low, while energy supply would be a pressing issue if nuclear power is phased out, Taipower said.
The three functioning nuclear power plants are to be deactivated in 2019, 2023 and 2025 after each has run for 40 years — the designated service life of each plant, the company said, adding that the three plants generate about 20 percent of the firm’s power.
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