The Taiwan Power Company (, Taipower; ) is a state-owned

electric power industry The electric power industry covers the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electric power to the general public and industry. The commodity sold is actually energy, not power, e.g. consumers pay for kilowatt-hours, power multip ...

providing

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

and off-shore islands of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

History

Taipower was established on 1 May 1946. Its origins can be traced to 1919 when

Taiwan Power Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

was founded during Japanese colonial rule. In 1994 a measure which allowed independent power producers (IPP's) to provide up to 20 percent of

should have ended the

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

. On 1 October 2012, Taipower allied with

Taiwan Water Corporation The Taiwan Water Corporation (TWC; ) is a state-owned water utility providing water supply to most of Taiwan and offshore islands. The company is headquartered in North District, Taichung. History On 16 December 1972, President Chiang Ching-k ...

to provide cross-agency integrated services called ''Water and Power Associated Service'' that accepts summary transactions between the two utilities. On 11 October 2012, the Economics Committee of the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

cut Taipower's budget for power purchases from IPP. In July 2015, the

Executive Yuan The Executive Yuan () is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Its leader is the Premier, who is appointed by the President of the Republic of China, and requires confirmation by the Legislative Yuan. ...

approved the amendments to the Electricity Act which were proposed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which will divide Taipower into two separate business groups in the next five to nine years: a

power generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...

company and a

power grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

company. The measures were taken to improve efficiency within the company and to encourage positive competition within the industry. On 20 October 2016, the Executive Yuan passed an amendments to the Electricity Act according to which Taipower will be divided into subsidiary companies in 6–9 years.

Operations

Taipower operates all of Taiwan's two active nuclear power plants. It also operates

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

power plants, but these are planned to be shut down in favor of natural gas turbines. The company is expecting its first deliveries of

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the vol ...

(LNG) in 2023 as Taipower is moving away from coal for power generation.

Financials

As of 2019, Taipower is the only Taiwanese state-owned company that is losing money, reporting a loss of NT$29.7 billion (US$955 million) during the first six months of 2019, a minus of NT$5.7 billion compared to the same period of 2018. The company attributed this on rising

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy b ...

prices and various anti-pollution measures which increased the costs of energy production. Taipower Headquarters

TPC Department of Power Equipment Repair and Maintenance 20101213

Taiwan Power Research Institute 20171028b

Organizational structure

* Taiwan Power Research Institute * Committees * Department of Nuclear and Fossil Power Projects * Legal Affairs Office * New Business Development Office * Department of Civil Service Ethics * Department of Human Resources * Department of Accounting * Department of Industrial Safety * Department of Public Relations * Department of Environmental Protection * Department of Information Management * Department of Construction * Department of Power Development * Department of Finance * Department of Materials * Department of Fuels * Department of System Operations * Department of Corporate Planning * Secretariat * Distribution and Service Division * Transmission System Division * Nuclear Power Division * Power Generation Division

Headquarters building

Taipower headquarters is housed in a 27-story building located in

Zhongzheng District Zhongzheng District (also Jhongjheng District) is a district in Taipei. It is home to most of the national government buildings of the Republic of China (Taiwan), including the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, the Control Yuan, the ...

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. Completed in 1983, it was then the tallest building in Taiwan and the first building to surpass the 100 meter height.

References

External links

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