On March 3, 2022, there was a power outage without warning in Taiwan Province. The outage affected a wide range, directly causing 5.49 million households to lose power and 1.34 million households to lose water.
In addition to affecting the lives of ordinary people, public facilities and factories have also been affected. Traffic lights cannot work normally, resulting in traffic chaos, factories unable to produce, and heavy losses.
This power outage also led to a water outage in the entire Kaohsiung. Because Kaohsiung’s water plants all use electric pressurized water delivery technology, there is no way to supply water without electricity. Therefore, the power outage caused water outages.
The person in charge of the Taiwan Provincial Economic Department said that the blackout occurred because of an accident at the Xingda Power Plant, which caused the grid to lose 1,050 kilowatts of power instantly. (This person in charge is quite reliable. When there was a major power outage before, the person in charge always liked to shirk responsibility, and the reasons given were also various, such as squirrels biting the wires, birds building nests on the wires, etc.)
Is it really that hard to get power?
Think about it carefully, how long has it been since you experienced a power outage? Occasionally there is a power outage, which is also the maintenance of the area, and will be notified in advance, and the power outage time is very short. However, in Taiwan Province, such things often happen, which makes people wonder, is it really so difficult to supply electricity? With such doubts, let us walk into today’s question: Where does Taiwan’s hydropower come from, and why are water and electricity often cut off?
Where does Taiwan’s drinking water come from?
The drinking water in Taiwan Province actually comes from Taiwan itself. Gaoping Stream, Zhuoshui Stream, Nanzixian Stream, Yanong Stream, Zhuokou Stream, and Sun Moon Lake can all provide freshwater resources. However, these freshwater resources are far from enough. not enough!
Last spring, Taiwan Province suffered a drought. Fresh water resources were very scarce, and even Sun Moon Lake had bottomed out. In desperation, Taiwan Province could only propose a method of rotating water supply by districts. This has seriously affected the lives of Taiwanese.
In addition, the loss of the factory is also very heavy, especially TSMC. TSMC is not only a monster that eats electricity, but also a monster that eats water. The consumption of water and electricity is huge, which also leads them to directly enter the water shortage crisis and have to send a car to pull water to save themselves. .
At a critical moment, officials from Taiwan Province actually held a rain-seeking conference. More than 3,000 people wore white clothes and held incense to worship. The mayor of Taichung, the director of water conservancy, the director of agriculture and other officials knelt down for more than 2 hours. It’s a pity, Still no rain.
This request for rain was severely criticized by the outside world. I don’t ask people to ask ghosts and gods. If it’s just ordinary people asking for rain, it’s fine. Taichung mayor, water conservancy director, agriculture director and other officials also followed suit. Is this too much? A little absurd? Can you be the director of the water conservancy bureau just by begging for rain?
Since the water conservancy bureau in Taiwan Province is powerless, let our mainland water conservancy bureau help them!
In fact, as early as 2018, Fujian Province has already started to supply water to Kinmen. The water from Shanmei Reservoir in Jinjiang is pumped and transported to the sea point of Weitou through the Longhu Pumping Station, and then sent to Kinmen through the submarine pipeline.
In March 2021, Kinmen’s daily water consumption was 23,200 cubic meters, of which 15,800 cubic meters came from the mainland, accounting for more than 68%, and the dependence is evident.
Where does electricity in Taiwan come from?
Taiwan Province’s electricity mainly relies on thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power plants, wind power, solar power, etc. Among them, coal power accounts for 30%, gas power accounts for 35%, nuclear power accounts for 8%, and hydropower accounts for 30%. The proportion of renewable energy is 5%, and the proportion of renewable energy is 18%.
Taiwan Province is an island with scarce natural resources. 99% of its oil and natural gas are imported. Although it can generate its own electricity, excluding nuclear power and renewable energy, more than 70% of its electricity depends on oil and natural gas for thermal power generation. Importing, it means not being able to generate electricity.
Taiwan Province now has 3 nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 5.14 million kilowatts, which are important power generation facilities in Taiwan Province. However, there are some so-called environmentalists in Taiwan Province, who insist on abolishing nuclear power plants and building a nuclear-free state without conditions. Homeland, once the nuclear power plant is shut down, the power that is not rich in Taiwan Province will be worsened. At that time, the problem of large power outages will appear more frequently.
Power outages often occur in Taiwan Province, in fact, because the power supply equipment has 3 huge shortcomings!
1. The entire Taiwan power grid is connected, and the failure of any link may affect the power supply of the entire Taiwan.
The power grid in Taiwan Province is a whole, and it can affect the whole body. This is obviously not feasible. The best way is to set up a regional power grid. When a problem occurs, only one area is affected, which greatly reduces the damage. However, The scale of Taiwan’s provincial power grid is not large, and the cost of establishing a regional power grid is too high. They cannot afford it, or are unwilling to afford it.
2. The power transmission and distribution system in Taiwan Province is backward
Nowadays, power generation has entered the 21st century, but the power distribution equipment in Taiwan Province is still in the 20th century. This is because Taiwan Province developed rapidly in the last century, and the power grid was also established in the last century. The development in this century is slow, so The grid has not been upgraded.
Updating the power grid is not an easy task. Not only does it cost a lot of time and money, but there is no benefit. Therefore, Taiwan’s power grid has never been updated.
3. The power itself is very lacking
In the past, in order to avoid the occurrence of shortcoming problems, only 80% of the units in the power station participated in the work. Once there was a problem with the equipment, the remaining 20% of the units were also started, and the firepower was fully turned on to ensure sufficient power.
Nowadays, people’s living conditions are getting better and better, and more and more electrical equipment is used, but the speed of power generation cannot keep up. When there is a problem, there is no substitute, and there is only a power outage.
Why is there a power outage?
Power outages are often accompanied by water outages, but some families do not have water outages. Why?
In fact, this is because of the different types of water pumps. In areas where electric pressurization technology is used, water will inevitably be cut off during power outages. Kaohsiung is a typical example, because water pressure is provided by electricity. Without electricity, there is no water pressure. water supply.
Generally speaking, the water pressure of the tap water itself can only supply the height of 4 floors, the position of 5-15 floors needs to be pressurized twice by the motor, and the position of 16-26 floors needs to be pressurized 3 times to deliver water. Therefore, when there is a power outage, the low-rise households may have water in their homes, but the high-rise households will inevitably have water outages.
All in all, water cuts are more often caused by power outages than droughts.
Is it really that hard to get power?
When you think about it, how long has it been since you experienced a power outage?
One year, two years, or three years and five years? Can’t remember?
It is precisely because there has been no power outage for a long time, so many people think that power supply is the most basic thing, and it can be done by pulling a few wires. Isn’t it easy?
In fact, power supply seems simple, but it is actually a huge project. So far, only China has achieved universal power supply in the world, and all countries, including the United States and Japan, have not been able to achieve this. Therefore, you Still think power is an easy thing to do?
There are many ways to generate electricity. The most common one is thermal power generation, which is available in every country. But after the power generation is completed, if the electricity is transmitted to all parts of the country, this is a technical activity.
The electricity produced by the power station has a voltage of only about 1000-2000 volts. To transmit such electricity to a distance, the speed is very slow, and there will be a lot of losses in the process. Therefore, pressurization technology must be used here.
Through the pressurization technology, the electricity is converted into electric energy with a voltage of hundreds of thousands of volts, which is transmitted to a distance through high-voltage lines, and then converted into low-voltage electricity of 220 volts through a transformer for our use.
Today, the most advanced UHV transmission technology in the world is my country’s exclusive technology. It is precisely because of this technology that my country can become the only country in the world where all people have access to electricity.
Insufficient power in Taiwan Province and outdated power transmission equipment and technology are the fundamental reasons for frequent power outages. However, it is actually very simple to solve this problem. You can refer to Hainan’s power grid and connect it to the mainland power grid through a submarine cable. Power supply problem.
Perhaps in the near future, there will also be a submarine cable in the Taiwan Strait to completely solve the problem of electricity consumption in Taiwan Province.
Post time: Aug-12-2022
