A major blackout was narrowly averted in northern Taiwan on the afternoon of April 15 when diesel-powered generators owned by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and other companies were activated to help bridge supply gaps as several major Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) generators went offline, pushing the operating reserve ratio down to an alarming 3 percent.
The event has prompted questions about the reliability of the country’s electricity grid and underlined that Taiwan faces great challenges, primarily concerning energy security, to achieve its planned energy transition from fossil fuel systems to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
In 2016, the government set an ambitious target to increase green energy use to 20 percent of overall consumption by 2025 and to scrap nuclear power entirely. However, surges in demand forced it to push that goal back to October 2026.
It is fortunate that Taiwan escaped a massive power outage last month, but the nation might be facing a far greater risk of shortages this summer given rising uncertainty in power supply.
Taipower has denied that there is not enough capacity. The state-run utility blamed the major earthquake that hit Hualien County on April 3 for the supply crisis. Power supply was reduced by 320 megawatts on the day as generators at Ho-Ping Power Plant in Hualien County, Taichung Power Plant and at two independent power producers — Kuo Kuang Power Co and Ever Power IPP Co — were affected, Taipower said.
Moreover, Datan Power Plant’s eighth generator unexpectedly shut down on April 15 as circuit breakers tripped, while output from solar panels drops after sunset from their peak output of 700 megawatts, Taipower said. The Datan facility is the biggest liquefied natural gas plant operated by Taipower. The combination of factors greatly curtailed power supply, it said.
To save Taiwan from large-scale outages and local companies from massive losses, Taipower on April 19 told lawmakers that it spent NT$24 million (US$737,508) buying electricity from the private sector on April 15 to meet emergency needs.
A massive blackout was avoided, but there was a series of small outages, mostly in Taoyuan, affecting more than 20,000 households.
On Monday, power disruptions occurred again in Taoyuan, affecting about 5,875 homes — the fifth blackout in the area this month.
Taipower attributed the cuts to broken power distribution feeders yesterday. Aging underground transmission lines, equipment malfunctions and fallen trees due to thunderstorms were blamed for previous blackouts.
Aside from regular households, local businesses fret over the reliability of power supply. The Third Wednesday Club and the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce have called on the incoming ministers of economy and finance to prioritize stable electricity supply and rates to make Taiwan a business-friendly nation.
Taipower in 2022 laid out a 10-year grid resiliency plan, which included an investment of NT$564.6 billion to retire old power cables, equipment and distribution systems through last year, but that is not enough. It needs to accelerate its efforts to bolster the reliability of the power grid.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS