Taipower plans 43 substations over next 15 years as power demand grows

Taipei, Oct. 14 (CNA) State-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) plans to build 43 substations over the next 15 years to meet growing electricity demand, Chairman Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said Wednesday.

The expansion also includes about 1,922 kilometers of new power lines, Tseng said at a forum during Energy Taiwan in Taipei. Growing demand from semiconductor manufacturing and artificial intelligence (AI) is making the timely delivery of electricity a key challenge for the utility, he said.

"We need to build 43 substations in 15 years, averaging about three a year. This is unprecedented," he said.

Tseng cited the Songhu substation project in Taipei as an example of the difficulties facing grid construction. According to Taipower, the project broke ground last month after 26 years of planning and administrative procedures and is scheduled for completion in 2029.

The limited availability of land means shorter transmission distances but also densely packed infrastructure that makes new lines difficult to build, he said.

Tseng cited growing power demand at the Southern Taiwan Science Park as an example of why additional substations were needed.

Grid planning will also need to take account of AI equipment spreading beyond large data centers to businesses and potentially homes.

Such equipment could shift evening peak demand toward 8-10 p.m., prompting Taipower to adjust its load forecasts and assess upgrades to older urban grids, he said.

For companies planning new facilities, access to electricity on schedule has become an early investment consideration because power infrastructure could take longer to build than factories, Tseng added.

He urged large data centers to locate near power plants, saying shorter dedicated power lines could reduce construction time, engineering difficulties and costs.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Tseng said Taipower is coordinating locations and investment schedules with major users and hopes to work directly with companies committed to investing in computing infrastructure.

Allocating supply capacity to a site developer before an actual investor is secured could leave less capacity available for other projects, he said. Taipower is considering fair rules to address that issue.

The utility's fastest-growing AI-related electricity demand currently comes from manufacturing, including chip fabrication, memory-chip production, packaging and server production, rather than computing service providers, Tseng said.

Planning with those industries is beginning earlier, including during industrial park development, to align electricity infrastructure with their expansion schedules, he added.