The date for the fourth nuclear power plant to begin commercial operations will be pushed back another year, mainly due to problems with the plant’s instrumentation and control system, the state-owned Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) said Thursday.
Work on the No. 1 generator at the plant is almost finished and it is being tested, the company said. The No.1 generator was scheduled to begin commercial operations on Dec. 15, 2011, and the No. 2 generator in December 2012.
However, Taipower Chairman Chen Kuei-ming said in a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee that the No. 1 generator probably will not begin commercial operations until late 2012 because there are still some problems with its instrumentation and control system that have not yet been fixed.
This marks the fifth time that the date for commercial operation of the fourth nuclear power plant has been postponed.
According to Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang, Taipower’s expenditure will increase by NT$400 million to NT$600 million for every month that the opening of the plant is delayed.
Chen promised that his company will keep the expenditure from the latest delay within NT$10 billion.
