Quick Review》How can we get an AI park without electricity facilities? Huida can hardly call Taipei an encore!

Taipei City's substation facilities are as difficult to build as power plants. Taipower completed the construction of Songhu temporary substation at the end of last year. (File photo)

[Reporter Lin Jinghua/Taipei Report] Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan has proposed the idea of relocating Songshan Airport and plans to turn about 300 hectares of land into Taipei AI Park, residences and parks to outline the city's development vision. However, in the face of the huge power demand of the AI ​​​​park, Jiang Wanan will only push for "restarting nuclear power", which is too simplistic. There is only land and AI vision, but no specific power plan. With such a city blueprint, I am afraid that Huida will not be able to call Taipei Encore.

Looking overseas, the power demand of AI data centers has made energy supply a core consideration for corporate layout. Some operators have even built their own power plants or signed exclusive power supply agreements to avoid mutual exclusion from other industries and people's electricity consumption. Taipei City's AI parks may not necessarily be dominated by ultra-large data centers, but the power demand of the Beishike Huida headquarters alone is estimated to be 40MW. If Songji wants to develop the AI ​​industry in the future, the city government may not be able to give Taipower specific answers as to what business formats it will introduce, how much power it will need, and when it will start supplying power.

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Taipei City has long been criticized for its lack of large-scale power plants. It relies on external power support, but power cannot be delivered to consumers without generators. The second nuclear plant near Taipei has an installed capacity of about 1,970MW. Even if it is restarted, it will first relieve the pressure on the Northeastern power grid, supply the development of Nangang Software Park and Neihu Science and Technology Park, and also allow the ban on setting up a data center of more than 5MW north of Taoyuan. As for whether the power can be delivered, it also involves the overall configuration of the grid's transmission capacity, transformer facilities, and transmission and distribution systems. Mayor Chiang only called for the restart of nuclear power, but did not contact Taipower to take stock of the entire set of transmission and distribution lines and substation facilities. Even the available power could not be delivered to the AI ​​park.

The Taipei City Government has launched a blockbuster plan for an AI park. Not only has it failed to contact the Executive Yuan, but the power operator Taipower Corporation has also not received contact from the Taipei City Government. The outside world has only seen that the Taipei City Government has allocated 300 hectares of land to develop the AI ​​park, but it has not yet carried out detailed coordination with the most important power supplier. What's more, building power facilities in Taipei City is no less difficult than building a power plant. In Taipei City, where land is at a premium, substations often face multiple challenges such as land acquisition, urban landscape, and local communication.

Take the well-known Songhu ultra-high voltage substation, which took more than 20 years from planning to construction. Taipei City’s substation and transmission line renewal also requires support from the local government. The power construction bottleneck will not disappear automatically just because AI has become a popular industry.

The relocation of Songshan Airport involves national aviation policy, land development, transportation construction and urban governance, and it cannot be discussed whether it should be transformed into AI industry development. However, the AI ​​park cannot attract industry giants by framing a piece of land and hanging an AI signboard; nor can it be solved by simply dedicating all power facilities to "restarting nuclear power."

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