Two local trade groups yesterday called for stable power supply to meet a fast pickup in demand from artificial intelligence (AI) devices and applications.
The Third Wednesday Club (三三會) and the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC, 工商協進會) raised the issue ahead of an electricity price review committee meeting convened by the Ministry of Economic Affairs tomorrow to discuss electricity rates.
Lin Por-fong (林伯豐), chairman of the Third Wednesday Club whose membership is limited to the top 100 firms in individual sectors, said policymakers should adopt an incremental and fair approach when setting new electricity rates.
Photo: CNA
In the past, the ministry had spared most households and small businesses from rate hikes and made big industrial and commercial facilities bear the brunt, Lin said.
Lin disagreed. “All should share the responsibility of keeping unprofitable Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) afloat,” he said.
Taipower last year incurred NT$198.5 billion (US$6.22 billion) of losses with cumulated losses soaring to NT$382.6 billion.
Taipower could have eased its losses by raising the share of more affordable nuclear power and policymakers should do so to ensure stable power supply and prices, Lin said.
In addition, the government should extend the services of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春), he said.
Stable and affordable power supply is critical to local technology firms, which are heavy electricity users but play a key role in driving Taiwan’s GDP growth, he added.
CNAIC chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) said in a separate venue that the government should seriously evaluate if Taiwan has sufficient energy to meet fast-growing demand from local tech firms involved in the supply of AI chips, servers and other devices.
The nation needs to be prepared since AI applications are expected to mushroom in the coming few years, Wu said.
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