IEEJ Journal of Industry Applications Vol.1 No.1 pp.41–45 DOI: 10.1541/ieejjia.1.41 Paper Smart Grid Development in Taiwan ∗ ∗∗ Chia-Chi Chu Non-member, Faa-Jeng Lin Non-member ∗ Po-Tai Cheng Member (Manuscript received Dec. 21, 2011, revised April 6, 2012) This paper introduces the current status of Taiwan’s smart grid technologies. The government policy and visions of the smart grid and the advanced metering infrastructure are first presented. An overview of the research effort in government laboratories and universities is also provided. Keywords: renewable energy, smart grid, advanced metering infrastructure a total installed capacity of 14.8 MW at an investment of 1. Taiwan’s Power System US$44.2 million from 2012 to 2015. In addition, TPC has Ever since the first coal-fire electric generator was installed been approved to invest US$112 million to develop solar pho- in 1888, Taiwan’s power grid has continued to grow to meet tovoltaic (PV) energy from 2008 to 2011 as the first stage. the needs of its people. In 1904, the first hydroelectric power The total installed PV capacity is 10 MW and will be com- station was commissioned in the suburb of Taipei. Several pleted in 2 MW, 3.5 MW, and 4.5 MW increments from 2009 small-scale, privately-owned electric companies flourished to 2011. since then, before they were all consolidated and became Tai- Since 2010, the installed capacity of renewable energy has wan Power Corporation (台灣電力株式會社) in July 31, 1919, reached 3,341 MW in Taiwan. Based on government tar- a corporation co-owned by the Taiwan Governor-General Of- get, installed capacity of renewable energy is projected to fice, the executive power during the colonial years, and sev- be around 10,858 MW in 2030 as shown in Fig. 2. Of the eral civilian organizations. This corporation initiates the con- renewable energy installed capacity, 2,502 MW will come struction of many generation facilities, including the Sun- from hydro, 3,156 MW from wind power, 2,500 MW from Moon Lake Hydroelectric Power Station, a very critical pump PV, 1,369 MW from wastes, 1331 MW from biogas, ocean storage facility in Taiwan’s power system, and the integra- energy, geothermal and hydrogen fuel cell. tion of transmission/distribution network previously belong 2.1 On-Shore Wind Farms TPC has been aggres- to various small power companies. Its generation capacity sively developing its wind power along the west coast of reached 320 MW in 1944. After the end of the World War II, Taiwan and Penghu islands because of their rich wind re- it was re-organized in 1946 and became Taiwan Power Com- sources. Most notably, Penghu has multiple renewable en- pany (TPC, 台灣電力公司), a state-owned monopoly and the ergy resources such as wind power, solar energy, tidal and so only power company in this country that operates the gen- on. Two circuits of 161 kV 200 MW 66.3 km HVAC subma- eration facilities, transmission/distribution network, and the rine cables are planned to connect the Kouhu P/Sinthewest retailing till today. TPC’s network is a typical south-north of Taiwan and the Penghu P/S in 2014 as shown in Fig. 4. longitudinal and isolated system as illustrated in Fig. 1. Ma- The main purpose of planning the submarine cable is to re- jor load centers are located in the northern part of Taiwan and place the 12 diesel engine generators on Penghu island. most of the power are supplied from the central and southern Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has proposed a area through three parallel 345 kV corridors. In 2011, the five-year project from 2011 to 2015 with a US$ 248 million total generation capacity of TPC has reached 40.25 GW (1)as budget to establish a low carbon dioxide island as a standard described in Table 1. model in PengHu. The installed capacity of renewable en- ergy will be over 56% of the load demand in 2015 and car- 2. Renewable Energy Development bon dioxide reductions will be lower than 50% from the year TPC is in pace with other developed countries in promot- 2005. In other words, the amount of per capita carbon dioxide ing renewable energy developments aggressively. More re- emissions will be reduced to 2.1 tons from 5.4 tons from the cently, TPC is planning the fourth stage wind power develop- year 2008 and thus keep pace with other leading countries. ment project with 12 wind turbine generators (WTGs) and Currently, the capacity of existing wind power is 4.8 MW and 5.4 MW WTG is under construction. Moreover, ∗ Center for Advanced Power Technologies, Department of Taipower, Penghu County and wind power developers will Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University plan to deploy 32 MW and 64 MW wind turbine generators Hsinchu, Taiwan ∗∗ Department of Electrical Engineering, National Central in five years. Hence, renewable energy for wind power will (2) University be one of the major natural resources in Penghu . Taoyuan, Taiwan 2.2 Off-Shore Wind Farms Offshore wind power c 2012 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. 41 Smart Grid Development in Taiwan（Chia-Chi Chu et al.） Fig. 1. Taiwan Power Company’s system (1) Table 1. Taiwan Power Company’s generation capacity Taipower has planned most highly potential onshore wind in 2010 farms along the west coast of Taiwan. Moreover, it has in- vestigated several possible offshore wind farms. In particu- lar, ChungHua Offshore Wind Farm could become one of the largest wind farms in central Taiwan. Its site is around 140 square kilometers in size and more than 294 wind turbine generators (WTGs) could be installed there. If each wind turbine generator has 3.6 MW of capacity, the total installed capacity would be around 1,058 MW. The offshore wind farm can be separated into two development areas as shown in Fig. 3. There will be six phases (i.e. 30 WTGs, 60-66 WTGs, 48 WTGs, 55 WTGs, 44-54 WTGs, and 47 WTGs) to develop the offshore wind farm from the north to south areas. The first phase considers either 36 WTGs of 3.0 MW each or 30 WTGs of 3.6 MW each with a total of 108 MW installed capacity in the north area of offshore. In addition, the area of phase 1 will have four 33 kV of submarine cables to be connected to the onshore substation and set up to the 161 kV transmission lines to the HsienShi D/S (primary distribution substation). Fig. 2. Target of renewable energy installation outlined The onshore substation further includes 33 kV GIS, 161 kV by the Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs. (X axis: Year; Y axis: MW) GIS, 33 kV-161 kV step-up transformer along with 3-phase 120/150 MVA capacity, and so on. 2.3 Photovoltaics Although solar PV technology is generation has greater energy potential than onshore wind still evolving and has not reached mature commercial status, power generation and has been developed very successfully some solar PV system developers have been interested in de- in the European countries. The key issues are suitable en- ploying multiple tens-of-megawatt scale of solar PV in cen- vironment, managing installation and maximizing access. tral and southern Taiwan. Moreover, the local government 42 IEEJ Journal IA, Vol.1, No.1, 2012 Smart Grid Development in Taiwan（Chia-Chi Chu et al.） Fig. 4. Organization of smart grid and AMI research under Taiwan’s smart grid strategic year 2025 (4). Fig. 3. The proposed off-shore wind farm site in central Taiwan 3. The Smart Grid Development The renewable energy is expected to grow in the coming has proposed to develop a 25 MW solar PV in Ping Tung years as the government policy outlines. County of Southern Taiwan. The solar PV generation will The Smart Grid Strategic Initiatives are outlined as fol- be connected to the 11.4 kV distribution system. With the at- lows: tractive procurement prices for solar PV, Taiwan will face the • Develop the smart grid and advanced metering infras- challenges of connecting large scale of solar PV to the power tructure (AMI) industry in Taiwan to establish high system. quality, high efficiency, user-oriented and environment- There have been 981 solar PV applications with the total friendly power system to reduce CO2 emission, increase installed capacity 151 MW to apply for the certificates up to energy efficiency and enhance energy security. October 15, 2010. 452 out of 981 applications have been • Tying in closely with the smart grid developing schedule approved by the MOEA with the total installed capacity of of Taiwan Power Company, integrate the research abili- 69 MW. In fact, the target of 64 MW for developing solar PV ties of industry and academia to establish smart grid and has been reached in 2010 (3). support the power facilities industry in Taiwan. 2.4 Government Policy To address the concerns of • Promote AMI, microgrid, smart home (building) energy the global climate change and energy shortage, Taiwan gov- management system, advanced distribution automation ernment issued the Sustainable Energy Policy Guidelines on four pilot projects by National Science Council (NSC) June 5, 2008. Afterwards, the Energy Conservation and Car- to develop key technologies of smart grid and AMI and bon Dioxide Reduction Action Plan based on the Guidelines ensure the merging of the developed technologies into is approved on September 4, 2008. The policy goals of the the power system in Taiwan will be reliable and feasi- guidelines are as follows: (i) promoting energy usage and ble.