• Taipower officially announced its “Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan” today (September 15), and will invest NT$564.5 billion in 10 years to comprehensively upgrade the national electrical grid system based on its three major focuses of “aiming for distribution, continuing reinforcement, and strengthening protection” and 10 dimensions, enhancing the capability to respond to emergencies and getting prepared for the 2050 net-zero transition goals.

In response to the nationwide power outage caused by the 303 Blackout (occurring on March 3), which has drawn everyone’s attention to the stability of Taiwan’s electrical grid, Taipower held a press conference today (September 15) to officially announce the “Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan,” in which Taipower will be investing NT$564.5 billion in 10 years to comprehensively upgrade the national electrical grid system based on the 3 major focuses of “aiming for distribution, continuing reinforcement, and strengthening protection” and along 10 dimensions, enhancing its capability of responding to emergencies and preparing for the 2050 net-zero transition goals. Taipower said that in the past, the electrical grid system was integrated to increase efficiency. In the future, a distributed electrical grid system will be built to improve resilience. Through the creation of a distributed electrical grid system, improving equipment stability and implementing measures to prevent the spread of power outages, this Plan attempts to reduce the probability of nationwide power outages and minimize the impact of power outages, striving to prevent massive power outages from reoccurring.

Taipower held a press conference on the “Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan” at the Taipower Building today. Wen-Sheng Tseng, the acting chairman of Taipower, and Yao-Ting Wang, the president of Taipower, jointly announced the Project.

Wen-Sheng Tseng explained that in the past, Taiwan’s electrical grid was developed towards a centralized and large-scale system due to the dense population, the difficulty of finding construction sites for power plants, and the rapid growth of electricity demand in Taiwan. The electrical grid system is connected through three major 345 kV power cables from the north to the south of Taiwan, and the Longtan, Chungliao, and Longci ultra-high voltage substations form a centralized electrical grid structure with three major hubs for the northern, central and southern regions of Taiwan.

Wen-Sheng Tseng further explained that although the 303 Incident was caused by the mishandling of equipment by power plant personnel, the single event eventually led to a massive power outage, which is mainly attributed to the over-centralization of the electrical grid system. Therefore, Taipower will build a distributed grid system through the conduction of its “Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan.” In addition to reducing the occurrence of power outages, the establishment of a distributed grid system can greatly reduce the impact as well as the time for power restoration even if a similar accident occurs in the future.

Yao-Ting Wang said that grid resilience refers to the ability to respond to accidents and restore stable operations in a short period of time. The for Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan is based on the 3 major focuses of “promoting distributed grid projects” (NT$437.9 billion), “improving grid reinforcement projects” (NT$125 billion) and “strengthening grid protection capabilities” (NT$1.69 billion), which are further categorized into 10 specific measures, including 5 aimed at distribution, 3 at continuing reinforcement, and 2 in strengthening protections. A total investment of about NT$564.5 billion will be injected into the Plan, which is expected to be completed in 10 years. Out of the total investment, about NT$376.1 billion has been planned and implemented, and another NT$188.4 billion will be continuously implemented to expand and accelerate the electrical grid improvement work.

• Taipower plans to increase the capacity of grid-connected renewable energy through the “Green Energy Distributed Power Supply” and switching stations are one of the key hubs for the grid connection of offshore wind power. Similar to distribution boxes in houses, a switching station acts as the power “relay station” to support the connection and distribution of electricity. After the offshore wind power is transmitted ashore, the electricity is integrated into the national grid through switching equipment that the public can then use. Photo: Changhua Phase One Switching Station.

Taipower pointed out that the “distributed grid projects” focus on reducing the risk of grid centralization and it plans on implementing 5 specific measures including “Direct Supply of Electricity from Power Plant to Science Parks” for minimizing cross-regional supply of electricity, “Green Energy Distributed Power Supply” for the promotion of grid connections for green energy and local power supply, “Hub Node Grouping” for spreading power supply risks of the three major substations, “Increase of Power Distribution Nodes” for easing the high electricity demand in urban areas by adding key substations, and “Improvement of Regional Dispatch” for spreading and managing risks.

The “grid reinforcement projects” focus on improving the stability of the equipment, and plan to implement 3 specific measures including “Grid Expansion and Renewal” for accelerating equipment upgrade and capacity expansion, and “Increase of Energy Storage Equipment” coupled with green energy development for improving power system stability. Moreover, “Compartmentalization of Substations” will be continuously promoted to avoid interferences by external forces and extreme weather.

In the “grid protection projects,” Taipower will improve the protection settings at all levels between power plants and the grid through “Strengthening Protection Depth.” Furthermore, “Real-time Dynamic Protection” can monitor the status of related equipment, improving the accuracy of protection. Overall, these measures can prevent the spread of power outages and help the power grid to isolate the fault point immediately in case of an accident, reduce the impact, and restore stable operation as soon as possible.

Taipower emphasized that the for Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan includes various short, medium and long-term projects. In the short term (2 years), Taipower will accelerate the implementation of undergoing resilience projects and strengthen system protection as well as defense capabilities. In the medium term (5 years), Taipower will continue to promote a distributed grid system and implement its reinforcement projects. Over the long term (10 years), the distributed grid projects for the three major hubs and related long-term projects will be completed, striving to prevent the recurrence of massive power outages caused by a single accident.

• Taipower plans to “increase distribution nodes” by building new, ultra-high voltage substations to increase power distribution in urban areas. In addition, the “Compartmentalization of Substations” will be promoted to improve power supply security. By combining with the diverse living environment in the local area, substations can be transformed into a multi-functional urban hub. The photograph above shows Taipower’s Da’an UHV Substation.

Taipower announces grid resilience construction today to comprehensively improve power supply quality, taking future net-zero goals into account

Taipower officially announced the “Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan ” today to comprehensively upgrade the national electrical grid system based on the 3 major focuses of “aiming for distribution, continuing reinforcement, and strengthening protection” and the 10 dimensions, enhancing the capability to respond to emergencies, and striving to prevent nationwide blackouts from occurring again. Taipower also summarized the highlights of the Plan, allowing the public to actually experience the comprehensive improvement in power supply quality.

Taipower said that one of the emphases of the Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan is to reduce the risk of grid centralization through the distributed grid projects of the “Direct Electricity Supply from Power Plant to Science Parks.” For example, the Tunghsiao Power Plant and offshore wind farm will supply electricity directly to the Hsinchu Science Park; the Taichung Power Plant and offshore wind farm will supply electricity directly to the Central Taiwan Science Park; the Hsinta Power Plant will supply electricity directly to the Southern Taiwan Science Park and the Kaohsiung Ciaotou Science Park; the Tatan Power Plant will supply electricity directly to the New Taipei Industrial Park and the Taoyuan Industrial Park; and the Dalin Power Plant will supply electricity directly to the Kaohsiung Nanzih Technology Industrial Park.

Taipower explained that reducing the power transmission distance is the best solution to reduce risks to the power grid. Therefore, Taipower plans to supply electricity to power demand centers such as science parks and industrial parks directly from power sources such as gas-fired power generation units and renewable energy facilities, rather than relying completely on the major north-south power cables. This can reduce the load on the grid and minimize electricity loss, so that the capacity of the existing power cables can be reserved for the needs of people’s livelihood, improving the quality of the power supply for the general public.

This Plan will also promote the construction of new substations to help the grid spread out risks through “increasing distribution nodes”; 28 new substations such as the Da’an and Wanlong Substations will be added, and the “Compartmentalization” of 24 substations will be carried out within 10 years. Taipower emphasized that the closer the substation is to the core region of electricity use, the more stable and safer the power supply will be. In response to the continuous growth of electricity demand for urban development in some areas, it is necessary to build new substations and compartmentalize the substation to improve the security of the power supply, minimizing external interferences such as animal and lightning damage. By combining them with the diverse living environment in the local area, substations can be transformed into a multi-functional urban hub, making them no longer NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) facilities.

Taipower pointed out that in order to achieve its goal of transitioning to net-zero carbon emissions, 60 to 70% of Taiwan’s energy structure in 2050 is expected to be distributed renewable energy. With the continuous development of green energy, this Plan can build a regional distributed grid system through “green energy with energy storage,” while strengthening grid system stability and maximizing the effective utilization of green energy, accelerating the pace towards Taipower’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions.

• In response to the continuous development of green energy, Taipower plans to build a regional distributed grid system through “green energy with energy storage,” while strengthening the stability of the power grid system and maximizing the effective utilization of green energy, accelerating the Company’s pace towards its goal of net-zero carbon emissions. The photograph above shows Taipower’s solar photovoltaic power plant and energy storage facilities in Tainan.

Spokesperson: Chief Engineer, Chin-Chung Wu

Tel: (02) 2366-6271 / 0910-192-766

Email: u850899@taipower.com.tw

Contact Person: System Planning Department Director, Chien-Hsun Liu

Tel: (02) 2366-6890 / 0937-171-158

Email: u019366@taipower.com.tw