After the 303 power outage, the resignations of both the chairman and the president of Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) were accepted by the government. MOEA Deputy Minister Tseng Wen-sheng was appointed interim Chairman of Taipower while Taipower Vice President, Wang Yao-ting assumed the post of Taipower President. Tseng Wen-sheng stated that Taipower is facing three major problems: power supply development, power grid expansion, and new personnel training, and there are many challenges to be solved in the future.
Taipower held the handover ceremony for newly resigned Taipower Chairman and President in the auditorium of the Taipower Building this (3/8) afternoon. The handover ceremony was overseen by MOEA Deputy Minister Chen Chern-Chyi with outgoing chairman Yang Wei-fuu and outgoing president Chung Bin-li replaced MOEA Deputy Minister Tseng Wen-sheng as interim chairman and Wang Yao-ting as president.
In his speech, Tseng Wen-sheng pointed out the challenges of power supply in Taiwan and key tasks in the future. Tseng Wen-sheng stated that Taiwan is facing three major challenges. In terms of power supply, Taiwan’s economic growth rate is astonishing and demand for electricity consumption is soaring. The period from 2016 to 2025 is the peak timeframe for decommissioning old units. At the same time as speeding up the pace to catch up with society’s demand for electricity, Taipower must also meet net zero carbon emissions in 2050.
Taipower stated that during the tenure of chairman Yang Wei-fuu, who will be retiring today, the cumulative installed capacity of generators reached 12.4 million kW with a 17.6 million kW power generation plan approved and under construction, totaling 30 million kW. This raises current power supply capacity of the power system to 50 million kwh.
When the proportion of renewable energy increases in the future, power grid issues will arise. After the 303 blackout accident, all sectors are concerned about the smart grid. Tseng Wen-sheng also stated frankly that in the future, after the power capacity of Taiwan is increased from 30GW to 50GW, it will need a larger power grid. In addition to a smart grid, there is added urgency to expand. This is also an issue where more communication with local governments and communities is desirable. The speed of power grid construction is slower and more difficult than that of power plants.
Next is the rapid increase in the proportion of new colleagues in Taipower. In the past, new recruits with less than five years of experience accounted for one-third of Taipower, nearly 9,000 people. It is estimated that by 2025, more than half of Taipower employees will be new colleagues. Taipower will accelerate training and invite company and union representatives to discuss industrial safety awareness. After all, safety is important in ensuring the lives of colleagues. Tseng Wen-sheng stated that the 303 incident did not affect the safety of Taipower colleagues but there are many industrial safety accidents that may affect himself or colleagues.
Tseng Wen-sheng said that after taking office, he will work hard with all Taipower colleagues and immediately invest in four core tasks, including grid adjustment, personnel improvement, establishment of an independent risk management department, and introduction of power industry experts to assist in an overall risk inspection of the Taipower system. Regarding the future direction of the organization, Tseng Wen-sheng also suggested that, in addition to the need to establish horizontal liaison with competent units, the power supply and transmission departments also need to conduct cross-departmental collaboration.
The MOEA also released the "303 Power Outage Accident Review Report" today. The MOEA stated that the accident was caused by Taipower personnel operating without checking the equipment and failing to properly implement a multi-layer failsafe mechanism. As for Hsinta Power Plant, the accident exposed insufficient awareness of personnel hazards in personnel operations and a lack of awareness of possible risks. In terms of the power grid, the continuous increase in electricity demand and the difficulty in construction of new and expanded power grids due to serious protests by the public, led to the concentration of the southern power grid at the Longci ultra-high voltage substation, increasing the risk to system operation.
The MOEA also instructed Taipower to improve in three areas including establishing a risk management and control unit, actively exploring systemic risks, and implementing various risk control measures. The design of power grid resilience should be strengthened, starting from strengthening frontline failsafes in the plant, comprehensively reviewing the logic design of failsafe relays in each power plant, comprehensively reviewing the failsafe grouping mechanism of the switchyard system of each power plant, and at the same time strengthening secondary failsafes between the power plant and the grid. In addition, review the protection, operation and maintenance contact control mechanism of power plants, ultra-high voltage substations and related power lines.
In terms of strengthening the construction design resilience of the power grid, Taipower will be instructed to accelerate the construction of decentralized power grids, the reconstruction of substations, and the promotion of renewable energy grid integration projects.
(Source: Taipower)