《TAIPEI TIMES》Government’s four-year plan to save 2.5 gigawatts: economics minister

By Lin Ching-hua and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The government has a four-year plan to save up to 2.5 gigawatts, or 15 billion kilowatt-hours of power by subsidizing the replacement of aging industrial equipment, and increasing household and commercial energy-saving efforts, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo （郭智輝） said.

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In an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times （the Taipei Times’ sister paper）, Kuo discussed the nation’s nuclear power policies and pledged to enact measures to conserve power over four years.

Commenting on the imminent decommissioning of the first reactor of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County on Saturday, he said that the Ministry of Economic Affairs was not the principal decisionmaking agency on nuclear power policy.

The ministry takes its cues from the Legislative Yuan and ensures that all actions comply with the law, he said.

“We will be ready” for the decommissioning, he added.

However, the ministry’s ability to increase power sources has been overestimated and more measures are needed to develop power savings, he said.

Opposition to the development of traditional electricity generating systems has grown, and if power generation is to keep up with the country’s economic growth, the nation would need to consider building a fourth or fifth liquefied natural gas terminal, he said.

The government’s progress in implementing green energy has “taken a minor setback,” Kuo said, adding that the ministry’s current strategy is to encourage the public to conserve energy.

The ministry is promoting a three-year program offering NT$5 billion （US$152.26 million） in loans for small and medium-sized enterprises （SMEs） to replace aging equipment with more environmentally friendly machinery, he said.

The life expectancy of equipment at SMEs and in traditional industries often exceeds 30 or 40 years, meaning older equipment still in use likely does not meet modern energy-saving standards, he said.

The program would later be expanded to industrial factories and private residences, he added.

The program is expected to conserve 6 billion kilowatt-hours by the end of next year, which would cover the loss in power generation caused by the decommissioning of Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s first reactor, Kuo said.

The government’s basic energy policies focus on sustainable provision, competitive power prices and improving power quality, he said.

The ministry aims to be as competitive as Japan and South Korea on power prices, but the focus now is on power quality, he said.

Taiwan Power Co （台電） is under tremendous pressure, facing issues of aging staff at the companies which it outsources to, as well as aging transformers and cables, he said.

Regarding new Taipei City Government policies that would lead to increased power usage, Kuo said he planned to meet with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an （蔣萬安） to discuss the issue.

He said he hopes to enlist the mayor’s support in encouraging local communities to embrace the construction of new infrastructure and address power usage issues in the Songshan （松山）, Neihu （內湖） and Nangang （南港） districts.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES