Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) pledged Wednesday that Taiwan's power supply will be stable starting in 2019 as natural gas, coal and renewable power sources are installed.

Lai said natural gas generators being installed at the Tatan Power Plant and Tongxiao Power Plant will help restore the reserve margin to 15.2 percent and the operating reserve margin to 10.2 percent by 2019, levels that would ensure a stable power supply.

The reserve margin measures the expected maximum available power supply above expected peak demand, while the operating reserve margin covers the additional amount of power that can be drawn from operating power plants beyond peak demand on a particular day.

President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) policy to phase out nuclear energy by 2025 has led to concerns over whether Taiwan can eliminate nuclear power while cutting carbon emissions and maintaining power supply stability.

With three of Taiwan's six nuclear power reactors not in operation as part of the longer term plan to phase out nuclear power and the loss of power from a coal-fired plant after one of its transmission towers collapsed during a typhoon, Taiwan's operating reserve margin fell below 2 percent at one point in early August.

A major power outage also occurred on Aug. 15 with operating reserves at under 5 percent of available capacity when the Tatan plant's six natural gas-fired generators shut down temporarily because of human error.

Lai said Wednesday that the goal to make Taiwan nuclear-free would be achieved by 2025 without compromising the objectives of stabilizing the electricity supply and improving air quality, though he did not comment on carbon emissions.

He expected a total of 88.96 GW of natural-gas fired generating capacity would be added by 2025, while only an additional 1 GW of coal-fired power, which can be particularly harmful to air quality, would be put in by then.

The government is also speeding up renewable energy projects, he said, with 3GW of solar generation capacity expected to be in place by 2020, five years ahead of schedule.

In answering questions from reporters on whether there were any circumstances under which he would consider restarting the nuclear reactors that have been shut down, Lai said, "there is no plan to restart nuclear power generators."

He repeated the answer in response to a follow-up question, but after a third question, Lai said such a measure would be used as a "last resort," without providing any further elaboration, including when pressed by reporters after the press conference.

The press conference was part of Lai's week-long campaign to address "five shortages," referring to Taiwan's potential lack of water, electricity, land, manpower and talent that are seen as obstacles to providing a better investment environment in the country.



(By Shih Hsiu-chuan)
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