In Taiwan, electricity seems to have become a "luxury", and people have to be aware of power outages whenever summer approaches.
And this year, the shadow of a power outage even hung over the entire spring.
In mid-April 2024, the neon advertising lights on the streets of Taipei were eclipsed, and the refrigerators and TVs of Taoyuan homes were turned off, and more than 1 million families were affected in just three days.
As early as early April 2024, some media in Taiwan predicted that due to old equipment and earthquake damage, Taiwan may fall into a "power shortage" again.
The deterioration of the external environment is one of the reasons, but the root cause of the problem is far from being as simple as the power plant crashing!
«——·Electricity has been a problem for a long time·——»
As early as March 2022, there have been a number of large-scale power outages across Taiwan, among which the aftermath of the power outage that swept across the island on March 3 and affected nearly 5 million households is still spreading.
On the 3rd, when the power outage has not completely subsided, on the 12th, Xizhi District of New Taipei City and Qidu District of Keelung City both "hit", nearly 4,000 residents suffered power outages, in addition to news that Kaohsiung, Tainan and other southern areas have been blacked out several times in March, and a series of power accidents not only seriously affected the daily life of the people, but also brought huge losses to the production of enterprises.
According to Taiwan media statistics, the power outage on the 3rd alone led to the sudden shutdown of the production lines of more than 500 manufacturers in more than 40 industrial zones in Taiwan, and the disaster affected many pillar industries such as steel, petrochemical, and semiconductors, with a total loss of more than NT$10 billion.
In order to achieve this unrealistic goal, the DPP authorities do not hesitate to abandon nuclear power and coal-fired power generation, the two most important and reliable sources of electricity in Taiwan, and instead advocate the development of green energy such as wind energy and photovoltaic energy.
Everything seems to be good, but the reality is far from it, and even if it reaches its peak, the power supply of these green energy sources will only meet Taiwan's basic needs.
Under Taiwan's climatic conditions, wind power and photovoltaic power generation are susceptible to the impact of wet and rainy weather, experts have repeatedly warned that if you rely solely on green energy, the power supply will be good and bad, and there are hidden dangers everywhere, but the DPP insists on closing its ears and listening, and its short-sightedness and obsession with energy planning have long doomed Taiwan's "power shortage".
«——·DPP's "Throwing the Pot" Behavior·——»
In the face of a series of power crises and boiling public grievances, the DPP authorities seem to be full of care, and after each power outage, they always do not forget to pat their chests to ensure that "Taiwan does not lack electricity", and then easily put the responsibility on "old equipment", "line failure" and grassroots employees, as if all this has nothing to do with their own decision-making, which can't help but remind people of the word "dumping the pot".
What makes people laugh and cry even more is that when the DPP authorities "investigated" the cause of the power outage on the 3rd, they actually pointed the finger at a grassroots employee of Taipower Company, accusing him of "misoperation" and triggering a chain reaction. "
Lin Chih-sheng, chairman of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of National Taiwan University, also bluntly said that the power crisis that Taiwan is currently facing is actually a "disaster" that cannot be escaped, and "if we do not adjust the energy structure as soon as possible and thoroughly reform the existing power system, we may enter the 'bottomless pit' of power rationing in the future." "
In the face of such a severe power challenge, the DPP authorities have not learned from the painful experience, but are still trying to shirk their responsibilities, and DPP "legislators" have asked Taipower executives at the interrogation meeting: "Don't you need to review?" The implication is that frequent power outages are purely incompetent.
As everyone knows, although Taipower is responsible, shouldn't the "Ministry of Economic Affairs" as the competent power department be responsible for the bigger pot?
In this regard, Taiwan's "Minister of Economic Affairs" Wang Meihua went so far as to argue that "Taipower is a special agency, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs is only responsible for supervision." However, she seems to have forgotten that as the top supervisor of Taipower, the DPP authorities are the "commander-in-chief" behind the scenes, and once their energy policy is improper, it will inevitably "affect the whole body" and eventually lead to frequent "central shock" in power supply.
According to official forecasts, Taiwan's electricity consumption will hit a record high this summer, and the gap between power supply and demand is as high as 1.47 million kilowatts.
In view of this, people from all walks of life on the island have recently urged the DPP authorities to rethink their energy policy as soon as possible, because after all, no one can stay out of the power issue.
Surprisingly, the Taiwan authorities not only did not take this as a warning, but instead promoted "green energy" as a vested interest, and some reports revealed that the operation methods of some pro-green energy enterprises can be described as "ugly"; at the beginning of the introduction of the relevant policies, they invested heavily in the construction of green power facilities, and when the policies were implemented, they resold the facilities to the Taiwan power company at a high price to make huge profits.
According to statistics, Taipower's losses in 2023 are close to the net assets of the entire company, and once there is an imbalance between the upstream and downstream, Taipower is at risk of bankruptcy at any time.
Therefore, from April 1, 2024, Taiwan will raise electricity prices across the board, which is undoubtedly worse for ordinary people, and the rise in electricity bills will not only directly increase living expenses, but also lead to collective price increases in all walks of life, and ordinary people have to pay for it.
In the face of the increasingly severe "electricity price crisis," some scholars have called on the DPP authorities to face up to the problem, but the DPP's response has made people laugh and cry: "Taiwan's current power outage is likely to be a harbinger of the mainland's preparations for forcible 'reunification.'"
The DPP's answer makes people laugh and cry, Taiwan is already generating its own electricity for its own use, and what does it have to do with us if there is a shortage of electricity?
However, if Taiwan really returns to the embrace of the motherland, I believe that a series of problems such as green energy transmission will be solved.
«——·Solution to the power problem·——»
In fact, as early as September last year, Cong Liang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, publicly stated that the mainland already has the conditions to transmit green energy to Taiwan, and the mainland has long occupied the world's first place in the fields of hydropower, wind power, and photovoltaic power generation, both in terms of technical level and construction scale.
In particular, in the area of long-distance power transmission technology, the achievements of the mainland are remarkable. The project of "West-to-East Power Transmission" alone has been in continuous operation for more than ten years. At present, whether it is Hong Kong, Macao, or tidal flat villages near the Kinmen Strait, they all use electricity from the mainland.
If Taiwan is willing to return to the embrace of the motherland and rely on the mainland's advanced green energy technology support, I believe that the problem of energy crisis can be completely solved, and by then, the shortage of power supply and the soaring price of electricity will also be eliminated.
In order to drive a wedge between the two sides of the strait, the Green Camp has blindly advocated the mainland's viewpoints of being "backward" and "closed," and has deepened this impression through the distortion of textbooks.
Not long ago, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou led a group of Taiwanese youths to the mainland to seek their roots, and in July this year, Ms. Hong Xiuzhu will also lead a youth group to visit the mainland.
After all, if the two sides of the strait can be smoothly reunified, the energy dilemma is only one of the problems that can be easily solved, and with the deepening of integration, Taiwan will surely embark on the road of prosperity and development again, and at that time, power outages, rising electricity prices and other troubles will become a thing of the past.
«——·Conclusion·——»
In short, Taiwan's current power shortage dilemma exposes the incompetence and short-sightedness of the authorities, as well as its unique political positioning and cross-strait relations, and if the Tsai Ing-wen administration continues to rest on its laurels and blame the grassroots workers rather than face up to the root causes of the problem, then Taiwan's power supply crisis will only intensify.
As a matter of fact, the key to resolving Taiwan's thorny issue lies precisely in the improvement of cross-strait relations, and only by rebuilding mutual trust between the two sides of the strait and further deepening cooperation in the field of energy can Taiwan's power supply truly achieve a fundamental improvement; after all, the mainland, as the world's second largest economy, far surpasses Taiwan in terms of energy reserves and technology.
As long as the people of Taiwan have the courage to break the shackles of "green ideology" and take the initiative to seek the improvement of cross-strait relations, the dilemma of Taiwan's power supply will be fundamentally alleviated. At that time, the entire island will also be freed from the energy crisis and usher in a new era of economic development.
However, the premise of all this is that the Taiwan authorities must put aside their prejudices and take the initiative to seek peaceful reunification with the mainland. Only in this way can Taiwan's energy crisis be completely resolved, and the entire island can truly move toward prosperity and strength. This is not only the expectation of the Taiwan people, but will also become an inevitable trend in the development of cross-strait relations.
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