The Ministry of Economic Affairs is adding new electricity sources to stabilize supply after raising its forecast power consumption growth to 2.5 percent annually as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other manufacturers are expanding manufacturing facilities.
“We estimate that power usage would increase because of resilient private investment in Taiwan. We expect the growth would be 2.5 percent each year in the following years, higher than we estimated in 2017,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told a media briefing in Taipei yesterday.
The ministry in 2017 forecast that power usage would grow by 1.84 percent each year.
Photo: CNA
Last year, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) alone sold 4.7 percent more electricity than the previous year, it said.
Taipower plans to add one electricity generator — generator No. 8 — at the Datan Power Plant (大潭電廠) in Taoyuan, while the No. 1 and No. 2 generators would be back in operation this year, Wang said.
Together, the three generators would contribute 182 million kilowatts, the ministry estimated.
Offshore wind power will play a key role in power supply this year, the ministry said.
Four new offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 2 gigawatts are to connect with Taipower’s grid this year, Wang said.
“We expect to see a large amount of energy coming from offshore wind farms this year, which would greatly help boost power supply. The wind farm developers’ two to three years of hard work will bear fruit this year,” Wang said.
In addition, the ministry continues to encourage installations of solar panels, which are to contribute about 3 gigawatts this year, she said.
With rising renewable energy sources coming online, the ministry said Taipower plans to build energy storage facilities, with total capacity this year reaching 1 gigawatt, to promote flexible and efficient use of power.
The ministry is also to step up construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off the coast of Datan Borough in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) to increase LNG power generation, after the public in a referendum on Dec. 18 voted in support of the plan.
The government is also considering ways to attract engineers and suppliers of materials and equipment needed to make chips, Wang said.
It will also encourage domestic companies to develop technologies in those areas, she said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) last week told semiconductor executives that the government would support efforts by local businesses to develop semiconductor equipment manufacturing expertise, as well as ask foreign chip equipment vendors to increase local production.
TSMC makes more than half of the world’s most advanced chips, but it relies mostly on US and other foreign firms, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and z Holding NV, for advanced equipment.
“We strive to grow Taiwan’s supply chain and have suppliers in close proximity to our chipmakers,” Tsai said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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