• The smart grid is an important key to leading industrial transformation and new economic development. Taipower has set up an official website to regularly reveal its achievements related to the smart grid.

In response to energy transformation and the rapid development of renewable energy, Taipower has committed to promoting smart grids to create a quality electricity supply environment. Since 2018, Singapore Power Ltd. (SP Group) has released an annual Smart Grid Index (SGI), which ranks power companies based on their smart grid development status. Having ranked No. 2 globally in 2021, Taipower was again internationally recognized as No. 2 in 2022 from among 94 companies in 39 countries worldwide. Taipower declared that it will continue to promote energy storage installation, distribution feeder automation, and smart electric meter deployment in order to develop the smart grid in Taiwan.

The Singapore SGI is an international rating of smart grid development, which evaluates power companies’ promotion of smart grids through seven major categories: customer empowerment and satisfaction, security, green energy, distributed energy resources (DER) integration, supply reliability, data analytics, and monitoring and control. The survey covers the Asia Pacific region, Europe, and the Americas and the latest rankings were officially announced in early February.

According to Taipower, the report surveyed 94 power companies in 39 countries around the world, among which, Enedis Distribution, a subsidiary of Électricité de France (EDF), continued to top the list with a score of 98.2, whereas Taipower continued to be ranked second with a score of 94.6, tying with British UK Power Networks (UKPN) and continuing to outperform other well-known Asian power companies from Japan and Korea.

Taipower explained that the power grid consists of power generation, transmission, and distribution systems, including power plants, substations, transmission and distribution lines, and other related power facilities, as well as dispatch systems. In recent years, there has been a trend towards a smart grid. Through the introduction of digital technology, it is possible to have a more comprehensive and real-time understanding of the national electricity supply and demand situation, strengthen the resilience of the grid, and improve the overall efficiency and quality of electricity supply.

Taipower indicated that since 2007, units focusing on power generation, transmission and supply, distribution, renewable energy, dispatch, communication, information, and research have collaborated to establish the “Smart Grid Task Force” to initiate the construction of a smart grid in Taiwan. Moreover, Taipower continues to cooperate with the government's overall plan to implement 17 specific measures in six major areas: “smart dispatching and power generation”, “grid management”, “energy storage system”, “demand-side management”, “information and communication infrastructure”, and “regulatory system”.

For smart dispatching and power generation, Taipower not only actively develops renewable energy, but also promotes real-time power generation monitoring of green energy. As of the end of 2022, Taipower was able to obtain more than 4 million kilowatts of real-time renewable energy generation data, which will serve as an important reference for power dispatch. Additionally, Taipower launched a power trading platform in 2021 to attract diversified power resources such as private energy storage systems to contribute to the power system. As of the end of 2022, 35 companies have participated, providing more than 300,000 kilowatts of electricity capacity to jointly maintain the stability of the electricity grid.

For grid management, in order to strengthen transmission and distribution system information monitoring and integration, Taipower continues to promote the distribution feeder automation project. Line intelligence upgrades enable maintenance personnel to operate remotely and have the system automatically detect and isolate the failure area, saving the time to rush to the site and significantly improve the restoration efficiency. By the end of 2022, the proportion of feeder automation has exceeded 80%, and is expected to reach 95% by the end of 2030, when electricity will be swiftly restored within 5 minutes after nearly 90% of distribution accidents, effectively improving the quality of the electricity supply to the public.

Regarding the energy storage system, with the rapid development of green energy, in order to strengthen the stability of the power grid and echo the government's goals for the energy storage system, Taipower has been actively promoting the construction of energy storage and energy ancillary services. Taiwan's first “solar power storage system”, a 20,000 kilowatt storage system integrating green energy, started operation in January of this year in Tainan’s Salt Field Solar PV Farm, and the first grid-level energy storage system was set up simultaneously in Kaohsiung’s Luyuan substation.

Demand-side management helps manage electricity consumption and is a key part of the smart grid. Taipower has been actively promoting the deployment of smart electric meters in recent years. As of the end of 2022, the Taipower has installed units in more than 2.1 million cumulative households, a 7.5 times increase from 280,000 households in 2019.  Smart electric meters enable consumers to accurately manage their own electricity consumption information in real time, which in turn facilitates the development of energy management systems and other electricity saving benefits.

Taipower expressed that the smart grid can lead to industrial transformation and new economic development, and the Taipower will continue to invest in R&D and innovation to ensure a quality and stable electricity supply environment in Taiwan.

• The Singapore SGI is an international rating of smart grid development, which evaluates power companies’ promotion of smart grids through seven major categories: customer empowerment and satisfaction, security, green energy, DER integration, supply reliability, data analytics, and monitoring and control. Having ranked No. 2 globally in 2021, Taipower was again internationally recognized as No. 2 in 2022 from among 94 companies in 39 countries worldwide.

Spokesperson: Wu Chin-Chung, Chief Engineer

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

Email: u850899@taipower.com.tw

Contact Person: Liu Chih-Suan, Senior Engineer, Smart Grid, Department of Electricity Supply

Contact: (02) 2366-8655 / 0927-007-027

Email: u019214@taipower.com.tw