Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to replace eight rusted transmission towers in the coastal areas of Taoyuan, Changhua and Yunlin counties by the end of this year to ensure the safety and stability of the nation’s power supply.

“Taipower will step up its efforts to negotiate with the landlords and hopes that they will allow the firm to replace the rusted towers on their properties,” an official from Taipower’s department of power supply said.

The company’s announcement came after the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday reported that eight towers equipped with 161 kilovolt (kV) transmission systems have been severely corroded by deposited sea salt.

The bolts on the towers have rusted and pieces of wood had been added to support the structures, photographs showed.

The towers are between 18 and 33 years old, the report said.

Towers in coastal areas corrode faster than those inland due to deposited sea salt, Taipower said.

However, the eight towers are extreme cases, as the landowners rejected Taipower’s requests to enter their land to replace the towers, the company said in a press statement.

Taipower said it has talked with the landowners of each transmission tower at least three times, but could not obtain their approval and had to use wooden supports as a temporary measure.

A Taipower official who requested anonymity told the Taipei Times that the company is facing difficulty when dealing with the landowners, as they demand that the company remove the towers or increase the amount of monetary compensation it pays them.

The durability of transmission towers is crucial to the nation’s power supply. The collapse of a tower owned by Ho-Ping Power Co (和平電力) on July 30 caused the nation’s power supply indicator to signal this year’s first “red” alert on Aug. 7, when the operating reserve margin fell to 846 megawatts.

There are about 23,000 towers equipped with transmission systems of 69kV or above in the nation, with 25 percent, or 5,750, of them older than 30 years, Taipower data showed.

The company said it employs more than 500 electrical circuit inspectors who examine the structural integrity of the towers and the power lines every two months.

The inspectors paint slightly corroded parts and replace those that have severely deteriorated, it said.

However, the company refused to disclose the number of corroded towers other than the eight reported by the media.