The BOE had originally scheduled to officially launch the "zonal development" bidding process in the second quarter of 2021 to give priority to those who have already passed the EIA. However, due to concerns about the lack of preparation by local supply chain manufacturers, the launch has been postponed to 2022 in August. Many manufacturers have made suggestions in this regard.
In the original zonal development plan, the bidding process was to start in the second quarter of 2021, with the first phase of five years to be divided into three phases of 1GW, 2GW and 2GW. Yet, in August, the start-up was suddenly postponed to the second quarter of 2022 due to concerns about the lack of readiness of the local supply chain, and was changed to a five-year plan with two phases, divided into 2GW and 3GW, with the 500MW cap on single wind farm and an increase in the number of nationalized projects.
Christy Wang, General Manager of Ørsted in Taiwan, said that Taiwan has become the global focus of offshore wind power and that they hope to maintain Taiwan's leading position in the Asia Pacific region, with the expectation that in 2021, when the bidding for zonal development is held, wind power operators will be able to obtain grid capacity and communicate with each other to confirm the actual contracts, provide more certain targets, and maintain the production capacity of the local supply chain.
CIP Taiwan project office director Marina Hsu said that the three wind farms in Changfang, Xidao and ZhongNeng are currently the focus, and in particular, Changfang and Xidao are under construction, and the financing of ZhongNeng will soon be in place, so they are definitely not absent from zonal development.
As to whether the third phase of the zonal development bidding process should be fast or slow, Marina Hsu pointed out that, ultimately, the government will prevail, and if the bidding time is advanced, it is hoped that they can request a substantive contract, rather than just signing a MOU, and the CIP can also be quickly negotiated and closed. Changfang and Xidao have 80 direct and indirect partners in the local industry chain, so there is a certain consensus, and the actual contract is also a protection for the local contractors; if the bidding time is slow, it is also hoped that the integrity of the contract will be higher.
The CIP has repeatedly emphasized the need to maintain the nationalization of zonal development projects and hopes not to switch to a proportional system to require nationalization, and the CIP's experience has also proven that the project system is feasible. Marina Hsu pointed out that developers generally start the bidding process for zonal development as quickly as possible, but there is an advantage to being slow, as they can open up the bidding process to more companies that are conducting EIA.
Star Energy, the civil engineering turn-key contractor in charge of the land-based substation and land-based transmission system for Greater Changhua Southeast and Southwest Phase I of Ørsted, also believes that the construction engineering standards in Taiwan need to be improved. Tsai Chyin-Fa, Chairman of Star Energy, said that there is an urgent need to improve QHSE in Taiwan.
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