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Electricity crisis in Taiwan

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On 15 August 2017, Taiwan experienced a widespread power blackout. The majority of the country, nearly 7 million households, was affected. The blackout was caused by human error stopping gas supplies into the Tatan power plant. The plant, which has a total of 4,384 MW of gas-fired capacity, subsequently went offline completely and backup systems were insufficient to prevent power failures. Although power supply from Tatan was restored around five hours after it tripped, Taiwan is still facing tight power supply and its power system remains vulnerable.

Table of contents

  • Key takeaways
  • Major blackout highlights system vulnerability
  • Electricity capacity has been stretched to the limits
  • Artificially low power prices are distorting the market
  • Opposition to nuclear is compounding issues
  • Power market structure is also to blame
  • President Tsai feeling the heat over energy policy

Tables and charts

This report includes 10 images and tables including:

  • Electricity crisis in Taiwan: Image 1
  • Taipower's daily reserve capacity and margin (June-July 2017)
  • Number of days with reserve margin <=6%
  • Taiwan monthly power demand
  • Taipower's peak load
  • Taiwan's nuclear capacity
  • Taipowers' power generation capacity, as of July 2017
  • IPPs' power generation capacity, as of July 2017
  • Cogens' power generation capacity, as of July 2017
  • Taipower's capacity additions by the end of 2017

What's included

This report contains:

  • Document

    Electricity crisis in Taiwan

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