New Gas-fired Units at Taichung Power Plant Pass EIA

New Gas-fired Units at Taichung Power Plant Pass EIA

Source: UDN

January 21, 2020

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) under the Cabinet convoked an environmental impact assessment (EIA) meeting to review a project regarding adding two natural gas-fired generators to the Taichung Power Plant, a facility under Taiwan Power Company (Taipower). The project was approved after Deputy Economics Minister Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) promised that two backup coal-fired generators would not operate over 240 hours per year, and a maximum of 10 generators, including coal-fired and natural gas-fired units, would operate at the same time. However, a “replacing old units with new” plan, i.e., decommissioning four coal-fired units before adding two gas-fired ones, set as a premise for the project by Taichung City Government, Changhua County Government, Nantou County Government, and environmental groups was not adopted by the EIA meeting. The Taichung Power Plant currently has 10 coal-fired generators, and with the additional two gas-fired units, the plant will be the largest fossil fuel power plant in the world.

Owning to the current 10 coal-fired generators, the Taichung Power Plant was regarded as the main source of air pollution in central Taiwan. In order to follow the energy transition policy to “reduce coal and increase gas,” Taipower proposed the project to construct two new gas-fired generators at the Taichung Power Plant. Taipower estimated that these two gas-fired units would go into operation in 2024 or 2025, and four coal-fired units would become backups. The project had been reviewed four times by an EIA group since 2018, and passed the first review under a number of conditions in October 2019.

In response to the result of the EIA meeting, Taichung City Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) indicated that it was totally unacceptable, adding that the way the central government increased generators without reducing any completely disregarded the feelings of residents in central Taiwan. In addition, Taichung City Government indicated that the result was disappointing and unacceptable, and reiterated its stance on “replacing old with new,” adding that the City Government would study and draft other countermeasures.

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