President William Lai (賴清德) should deliver a state of the nation address at the legislature and convene a national affairs conference on energy to forge a national consensus on the issue, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Culture and Communications head Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said yesterday.
Lee made the remark after Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) chairman Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) earlier this week said that due to difficulties in electricity development and transmission, any new data centers in northern Taiwan using more than 5MW of power would not be provided with power.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday said the nation’s overall energy supply was sufficient, but the regional supply was lacking.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
It was difficult to develop new power generation sources in northern Taiwan, Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said, adding that support for the Concord Power Plant, which involves building a fourth liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal, is critical in the government’s efforts to reduce the power shortage in northern Taiwan.
Lee yesterday accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of being aware that Taiwan risks having insufficient power, but has failed to apologize for adopting inadequate energy policies that have led to the current situation.
The DPP is attempting to capitalize on the energy shortage and make a political power play by refusing to approve the establishment of data centers using more than 5mw of power north of Taiwan, including Taoyuan, which is traditionally a KMT stronghold.
Lee accused the DPP of denying the residents of northern Taiwan access to power and high-end data centers because the party could not win their “hearts and minds.”
The DPP government could have taken other options such as extending the service life of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) or starting up the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the Longmen (龍門) Nuclear Power Plant, in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), to resolve northern Taiwan’s power shortage, she said.
Lee urged Lai to seize the moment to give a state of the nation address at the legislature and convene a national affairs conference on energy to fix the nation’s energy policy.
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