Zeng Wensheng’s AI goes deep into the family and is more afraid of playing video game team battles than “electric pot load”

Taipower Chairman Tsang Wensheng (3rd from left) gave a special speech. (Photo by reporter Lin Jinghua)

Taipower Chairman Tsang Wen-sheng today (14th) gave a special speech on "Taiwan Electric Power's Layout in the Next Ten Years", mentioning that Taiwan's peak load annual growth rate will reach 2.7% in the next ten years. With AI applications entering the home, people who have used ChatGPT may not be able to go back. In the past, Taipower called the "cooker load" during the night peak period, which may be postponed from 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening to around 8 or 9 o'clock, and students will start using computers to do homework and play online games instead.

Vincent Tsang’s keynote speech focused on the trend of electricity consumption in the semiconductor industry. Reports such as the annual load growth rate of approximately 2.7% in the next 10 years emphasized that Taipower has maximized the preparation of gas-fired units. Taiwan only accounts for 0.8% of global GDP. However, according to statistics, as of the first half of 2026, the gas-fired units under construction ranked seventh in the world. From 2026 to 2035, a total of 26GW was added nationwide. This year, five large-scale gas-fired units including Taichung and Xingda were tested and commercialized. Interestingly, according to this statistics, Taiwan ranked third in 2024. Zeng Wensheng found that surpassing Taiwan are Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, all of which are in the Middle East. In addition to being major gas-producing countries, they are also closely related to the driving force of computing power. Investment in computing power has economic benefits for Middle Eastern countries.

According to Taipower's forecast, the semiconductor industry will consume about 52 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity this year, accounting for about 18% of Taiwan's total electricity consumption. In ten years, this will double to 110 billion kilowatt-hours, accounting for an estimated 30% of the total electricity consumption. Among them, the main and largest growth comes from wafer manufacturing. Zeng Wensheng explained that the best way to grasp the growth of electricity consumption is to come from the wafer manufacturing part, especially advanced processes below three nanometers. If TSMC decides to invest, it will determine the subsequent growth of electricity consumption. The power consumption of semiconductor-related memory, packaging and testing, and high-end servers is about 30% of that of wafer manufacturing. However, with the current vigorous development of the industry, the power demand for memory and high-end server burn-in tests may increase slightly.

Zeng Wensheng also said, "In the past, we were concerned about power supply issues, but now power grid configuration is the key." AI power consumption will be dispersed to homes and companies, using 1MW and 2MW. He gave an example. The server produced by Gigabyte is equivalent to a Datong electric cooker with about 1KV, but the electric cooker may only be used two or three times a day, but the computer may be used for more than 10 hours. Taipower used to have an internal term for evening electricity consumption as "electric cooker load." When millions of households in Taiwan are cooking, the electric cooker is equivalent to 1GW. In the future, Taiwan's night peak may change from 5 or 6 pm to 8 or 9 pm. As soon as you start doing homework or playing computer games, the power consumption will increase at night, and you are most afraid of students asking for group fights.

In addition, Taipower also announced that according to the current power consumption of Taiwan's AI data center, the total nuclear supply has reached 1,441MW, of which the increase in nuclear supply this year has reached 750MW. Zeng Wensheng further explained that Google is currently supplying 200 to 300MW in Changbin, and the main applicants are also telecommunications and communications companies. However, he called on Taipower to very much hope that the applicants will be investors, not site providers, because to apply for a 100MW AIDC, it must prepare 150 billion yuan in funds.

Regarding the key figures for power grid construction in the next 15 years, he mentioned that Nanke is a major semiconductor town, and it is estimated that the load will exceed 4GW in 2031. Nanke will have three ultra-high voltage substations. Zeng Wensheng said that in the past, a place name usually had one ultra-high voltage substation, but Nanke actually has three substations, which is definitely the only one in the world. He further emphasized that Taipower aims to stabilize electricity and electricity prices, promote a stable society, and allow the technology industry to develop stably. He hopes that the outside world will support Taipower's financial stability.