CPC Corp, Taiwan’s state-owned energy company, is preparing to ramp up LNG procurement through a new regas terminal in the Guantang Industrial Area. By importing more natural gas, utilities comply with the government’s policy to exit nuclear power by the end of this year.
The Guantang terminal, situated in the north of the island, will give CPC an additional option for importing LNG apart from its Taichung LNG terminal which is also being expanded.
The Taiwanese government wants to replace nuclear power with natural gas and renewables. To that end, the ratio of electricity generated from natural gas is meant to rise to 50%, the ministry of economic affairs said, specifying the mid-2025 as the deadline for the completion of the country’s nuclear exit.
Taipower seeks to adhere to the government’s Nuclear Free Homeland Policy and state-owned CPC Corp consequentially increased LNG imports since early summer last year, and recently got approval to build a new regas terminal at Kaohsiung. Unit 1 of Taipower’s last fully functional nuclear power plant was shuttered on July 27 2024, and the utility currently prepares to decommission Unit 2 in late August or September 2025. This will complete Taiwan’s nuclear exit.
Repowering Talin plant to replace lost nuclear capacity
By that time, however, the country will need to import substantially more LNG as gas-fuelled power station will need to be dispatched for mid-merit or even partly as a baseload power source. Repowering the Talin coal-fired power units to cleaner-burning natural gas is under consideration. Not only would this boost demand for LNG, combusting gas instead of thermal coal would also produce around 95,000 tonnes less sulphur oxide, 50,000 tonnes less nitrogen oxide, and 6.26 million tonnes less carbon dioxide annually.
CPC confirmed it will supply regasified LNG to the repowered Talin power plant at Kaohsiung Port. But the company was quick to add it would also supply gas to power industries, homes, other end-users, and source gas for storage to meet seasonal demand swings.
Plans to increase Taiwan's natural gas reserves from the current 7-day storage level to 14, have already been announced by the country’s Ministry of Economics in October last year. Greater gas storage requirements further add to rising demand for imported LNG. All these factors make the state gas buyer CPC Corp keep a vigilant eye on offerings from long-term LNG deliveries as well as on the spot market.
