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MOEA misleading on rate hikes: groups
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Members of the Green Citizens¡¦
Action Alliance protest outside the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taipei
yesterday.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Environmental groups yesterday said
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang¡¦s (¬IÃC²») recent remarks that
electricity prices would soar by 40 percent if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant
does not go into operation are misleading and could even be considered as
threatening the public into accepting nuclear power.
In Shih¡¦s report to legislators last week about construction of the plant ¡X the
Longmen (Àsªù) Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City¡¦s Gongliao District (°^¼d) ¡X
he said electricity prices would greatly increase if the project were abandoned
and the three operational plants are retired in a few years.
Members of the Green Citizens¡¦ Action Alliance (GCAA) and several other groups
demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday,
calling for Shih to apologize for what they said were his threatening words.
¡§Ministry of Economic Affairs, stop threatening the public; Minister Shih come
out to apologize,¡¨ the demonstrators shouted.
The groups said Shih made three major mistakes in his comments: the cost of
natural gas was inflated and the price of nuclear-derived electricity
underestimated; the electricity that would be generated by the Fourth Nuclear
Power Plant would only account for 6 percent of the total electricity supply and
thus would be unlikely to boost electricity prices by 40 percent, and retirement
of the three plants now in operation is already government policy.
According to the ministry¡¦s estimates, the price of electricity would skyrocket
if nuclear power were to be replaced by natural gas power, but that is because
it has claimed the cost of natural-gas-powered electricity to be NT$5.7 per
kilowatt hour (kWh), GCAA deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (¬x¥Ó¿«) said.
However, a report by the International Energy Agency says the most expensive
natural-gas-powered electricity in the world is in Japan and only costs about
NT$3.15 per kWh, Hung said.
The ministry said the cost of nuclear-derived was NT$0.69 per kWh, but it
actually ranges between NT$3 and NT$4 per kWh in most European countries, and is
NT$1.75 per kWh in China, Hung said.
The nation¡¦s three operational plants are scheduled for retirement by 2025, but
that is still more than 10 years away, Hung said.
The activist questioned why the ministry chooses to ¡§threaten the public¡¨ into
not giving up nuclear power instead of putting more effort into finding measures
to keep electricity prices down.
An official at Taiwan Power Co, which runs the three operational nuclear power
plants, said its price estimates, including nuclear power and natural gas costs,
are correct, because it has taken the cost of building new power plants and
possible price rises over the next 10 years into consideration.
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