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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》Taipower told to review allocation of employees
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin takes part in a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
MONEY FOR NOTHING: Taipower president Chung Bin-li said the annual personnel expense at the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is about NT$700 million
By Lauly Li / Staff reporter
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin （沈榮津） yesterday said the ministry would demand that Taiwan Power Co （Taipower, 台電） review its employee allocation policy at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant after the state-run firm was revealed to have more than 500 employees working at the mothballed plant.
“It is necessary to have employees stationed at the power plant for routine maintenance and testing … but we only need a minimum headcount at the plant since it is not operating,” Shen told lawmakers during a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee.
The workforce issue arose after the Chinese-language Next Magazine published an article claiming that there are 550 employees at the mothballed plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District （貢寮） being paid total annual wages of between NT$700 million and NT$800 million （US$23.18 million and US$26.49 million）.
The nuclear power plant was mothballed by the government after protests against its operation in 2014.
Taipower president Chung Bin-li （鐘炳利） told lawmakers that the annual personnel expense at the plant is about NT$700 million and the number of employees has been reduced from 550 at the end of last year to 360.
Given that the plant is not operating, Taipower plans to continue cutting the number of employees to fewer than 300 next year, Chung said.
Taipower has approached power plant operators in Europe, the US and Japan about selling the nuclear power plant’s assets, but it is not easy to find a potential buyer, he said.
Nonetheless, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has given Taipower a deadline for disposing of the assets while they are still valuable, Shen said, without disclosing the time frame.
Meanwhile, the ministry estimates that the average electricity rate would increase by NT$0.5 per kilowatt-hour （kWh） by 2025, due to the growing use of the higher-cost renewable energy as the nation phases out the use of nuclear energy.
However, the electricity rates for households that consume less than 330kWh of electricity per month would likely remain unchanged, as President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） has promised to take care of economically disadvantaged households, Shen said.
The government’s goal is the grow the contribution from “green” energy to 20 percent, natural gas to 50 percent and coal to 30 percent, in a bid to achieve a nuclear-free energy policy by 2025, the ministry said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
