Don't Let Power Shortage Become a Routine Nightmare

  Don't Let Power Shortage Become a Routine Nightmare

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 22, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

From the government to the grassroots, everyone is nervous, preparing to face the power crisis this summer, but starting from the 15^th, temperatures have continued to climb to over 35° Celsius, with the daily electricity consumption of 34 million kilowatts continuing to reach new highs for power consumption this year, also creating a new record for power consumption in May over the years. As a consequence, the operating reserve rate dropped to around 5%, flashing an orange light, representing a power supply alert for days in a row; thus, the power crisis has arrived early this year.

Amid the power shortage crisis, there have been frequent incidences of power outages without warning everywhere on the island, with affected households numbering from a few hundred to a few thousand; there have been six power outages in Taipei City in the past 10 days alone. When such an unstable power supply situation occurred in May, how could the situation of this summer’s power supply put people’s minds at ease?

The Tsai government admits that the power supply situation this summer is “very serious,” going to the extent of eating its own words by allowing the nuclear reactors that had originally been deactivated to restart for joining the power grid. The Tsai government has also pledged that as long as we sail through this year, the power supply in the future will be adequate and stable. However, regrettably, according to the existing trends of power supply and power demand, the power supply situation in the future will only become more serious, and not “sailing smoothly through perilous waters.”

In actuality, as we can see from the reaction of business circles, no business operators believe that the problem of a power supply crisis will be eased next year. Bruce Cheng, founder of Delta Electronics, believes that the mothballing of Nuclear Power Plant No. 4 was lethal for Taiwan. Tseng Fan-cheng, the new chairman of TSMC, says, however, that the issues of water resources and electric power cannot rely on private sector conservation; the government must have long-term thinking and planning.

Bruce Cheng says: "Only with stable energy sources and power supply can Taiwan have a future"; how true such a statement is! For the future of Taiwan, the Tsai government must pragmatically revise its energy policy as soon as possible!

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