China News Service, Taipei, March 7th. On March 3rd, a serious power outage broke out across Taiwan. The entire line south of the central part of the Taiwan Railway was suspended. Nearly 40% of about 5.49 million households in Taiwan were without power. Semiconductor, optoelectronics, petrochemical, steel and other industries. Production is affected, and losses may reach tens of billions of Taiwan dollars.
An article published on the official website of Common Wealth Magazine on the 7th pointed out that the power outage highlighted the three major vulnerabilities of Taiwan's power supply.
The first is that the entire Taiwan power grid is connected, and any equipment accident may affect the entire Taiwan power supply.
The article argues that to avoid such risks, regional grids may be a solution.
However, the overall scale of Taiwan's power grid is not large, and it is expensive to build a regional power grid.
The second is that Taiwan's power transmission and distribution system cannot keep up.
"Power generation has entered the 21st century, but power distribution is still in the 20th century," said an electrician who has participated in Taiwan's smart grid planning.
The reason is that most companies are only interested in the "business opportunities" of energy transition, such as building power plants and selling electricity.
However, the characteristic of renewable energy is that it is unstable. When it is input to the power grid, it is necessary to update and intelligentize the power transmission and distribution system to ensure stable power supply.
The difficulty is that the power grid update is not only thankless and unprofitable, but few people from Taipower to the industry are willing to invest.
The third largest vulnerability is still indirectly related to lack of electricity.
A technician who has worked in a thermal power plant for more than 20 years pointed out, "For fear of lack of power, in the past, only 80% of the units were used. Now each unit is fully fired, all Plan B and all rescues are online, and there are no bench players. "
The article pointed out that the problem reflected in this power cut is not as simple as "power shortage".
Instead, it highlights the "growing pains" of changing clothes in Taiwan during the energy transition process, which requires a lot of investment and time to improve.
In a related report from the "Economic Daily" on the 7th, the authorities said that the reserve capacity rate was as high as 24.6% during a power outage, which was not a lack of power. Ye Zongwei, a professor at the Department of Engineering and Systems Science of Tsinghua University, pointed out that most of them "doesn't exist when you go down a mountain." Sunlight, so the initial power outage in the north and the second wave of power outages in the south in the evening all show that the island is insufficient and highly reliant on green power.
The scholar believes that the authorities are accelerating the progress of the third natural gas terminal project, but this facility will not be able to supply gas until at least 2025. "What about 2023, 2024, and 2025?" The number of units continues to decrease, and the possibility of power outages will be greater.
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