Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) today (July 7) announced that to ensure stable power supply and protect marine ecosystems, it has devised the “eastward shift” plan for its gas storage construction project involving land reclamation. The company emphasized that it will keep the corals along submerged breakwaters without exerting much impact on the budget and gas supply schedule.
This project centers on renovation of the Hsieh-ho Power Plant in Keelung, Taiwan. The plant, comprising four oil-fired generation units that have been running since 1977, has a capacity of 2 GW and has recently reduced electricity generation to cut carbon emissions. However, as Taipower indicated, the Hsieh-ho Power Plant is crucial for powering 4.8 million homes throughout Taipei City, New Taipei City and Keelung, where the estimated peak load will be >5.8 GW this year. In 2025, the electricity demand will hit 6 GW. Accordingly, the company proposed to transform the power plant into a gas-fired plant comprising two generation units totaling a capacity of 2.6 GW. Following the renovation, the power plant will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 52%.
The northern–eastern power grid in Taiwan mainly depends on electricity from the Kuosheng Nuclear Power Plant, Hsieh-ho Power Plant and Hoping Power Plant. However, as the former two plants will be decommissioned in the near future, the entire region has to rely on the Hoping Power Plant with a capacity of 1.3 GW, creating a electricity shortage of 4.7 GW in 2025. Yao-Ting Wang, president of Taipower, indicated that although the gap can be offset by support from the northern–western grid, natural barriers formed by the Tamsui River and Yangmingshan will cause considerable technical difficulties in electric power transmission. Even if the transmission can be done, the maximum capacity will be 4.2 GW, still lower than the 4.7-GW threshold.
To follow the oil-to-gas renovation plan, Taipower will build the 4th LNG terminal through land reclamation, for which the fourth preliminary EIA session will be held at 4pm today. Accordingly, the company proposed a plan aiming to reach a balance between marine conservation and power supply stabilization.
As Taipower specified, the eastward shift solution will cut the land reclamation area and earthwork volume from 18.6 hectare and 3.5 million cubic meter to 14.5 hectare and 1.95 million cubic meter, respectively, while the sea fans and corals along submerged breakwaters will be conserved.
Being asked about whether the construction schedule and cost will be influenced, acting chairman of Taipower Wen-Sheng Tseng answered that the budget and gas supply schedule will not change much. The number of caissons for the new solution, despite having one less breakwater, will remain similar, so the budget won’t change much. As for the operation schedule, the earthwork plan will not affect the goal of launching gas supply in 2028; construction will be launched soon after the EIA is approved. An evaluation also revealed that the LNG carrier work will not affect the operations of merchant ships, fishing vessels and naval ships in the Port of Keelung.
According to Tseng, the original four oil-fired generation units in the Hsieh-ho Power Plant will be decommissioned in 2024, and that the new construction project will not kick off until 2027. To fill the 3-year power supply gap, the Longtan ultra-high voltage substation will share more power with the northern–eastern grid, while power plants in Taoyuan will also provide assistance. Considering storage planning in northern Taiwan, the said gap can be sealed if electricity can be stored for peak demand. Tseng emphasized that the company will strive to find and manage power development as efficiently as possible.
(Photo credit: , CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
