The economics ministry’s Bureau of Energy is warning that Taiwan may face a power shortage as early as May.
On Thursday, Economics Minister John Deng told the legislature’s economics committee that dealing with the crisis will require factories to maintain their equipment properly and postpone regularly scheduled large-scale repair work. Deng also said that private citizens will have to do their part to conserve energy as well.
Deng said that limits on power usage would be placed on large users and factories, with electricity to ordinary citizens restricted only as a last resort.
Deng said that unusually hot weather in recent weeks is partly to blame for the power shortage. He said that this has been aggravated by a water shortage which has limited production of hydroelectric power and impacted cooling at fossil-fuel power stations. Regularly scheduled repair work planned for May and September at each of the Taiwan Power Company’s power plants will worsen the situation.
Deng said that his ministry will publish data on power generation online every day. He said that while the economics ministry does not mean to alarm the public, private citizens should still do their part to save energy.