Indiscriminately practicing air pollution laws! Taipower and Taiwan Cement Co., Ltd. have been hit, and Blue and White are forcing "universal power cuts" in 2028.

The draft of the Blue and White Air Pollution Law is extremely targeted at the power generation industry. (Photo by reporter Lin Jinghua)

[Reporter Lin Jinghua/Taipei Report] The opposition party continues to label air pollution and electricity regardless of the country's economic development. The Legislative Yuan held consultations on amending the air pollution law on the 10th. The target of the restrictions is the power generation industry, and the signs are directed at subcritical and ultra-supercritical coal-fired units. The impacts include Taipower's Chung Huo, Dalin, Linkou and private operator Taipei Cement's Heping power plants total more than 9.72 million kilowatt-hours. If all eight coal-fired units of Taipower are shut down next year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs pointed out that the reserve capacity will "plunge and turn negative" in 2028 and 2029, which means there will be risks of power shortages and power rationing.

In May of this year, Blue and White proposed amendments to the air pollution law, including extending and shortening the validity period of stationary pollution source operating licenses, affecting more than 8,000 domestic factories, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, etc. However, during the recent negotiations between the government and the opposition, the scope of Blue and White's restrictions was changed to the "power generation industry", which is obviously aimed at Taipower and private power plants. According to the amendment motion proposed by Blue Councilor Luo Tingwei and others, subcritical coal-fired units should eliminate coal consumption by the end of 2028, and ultra-supercritical units by 2035. This is equivalent to the passage of the amendment, affecting four power plants including Zhonghuo, Dalin, Linkou and Heping.

In addition, the revised law also stipulates that coal-fired units in the power generation industry should be decommissioned according to plans. After they cease commercial operation, they must not be restarted or directly converted to emergency backup power facilities. This goes against the common international practice of balancing pollution reduction and maintaining resilience, #increases dispatch risks, and affects national security. Taipower believes that if the law is revised in this case, if all coal-fired power plants are shut down in the next year, it will inevitably destroy the balance of power supply and exceed the load of the power grid. The whole people will jointly bear the unbalanced power supply in Taiwan.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs emphasized that in response to the growth of electricity consumption in industries such as AI and semiconductors, the government has fully planned the time for adding and decommissioning units. Minister of Economic Affairs Gong Mingxin also said that stable power supply is the most important thing. In the next ten years, 25 new units will be added, adding 26GW, and each unit will It takes six or seven years to build coal-fired units before they can be turned into standby or emergency standby. He stressed that new units can only be dismantled before old ones can be dismantled. "There must be steps." If the shutdown is forced in any year, there will be power shortages and challenges. The Ministry of Economic Affairs does not want to see this result.