“The efficient operations of Linkou Power Plant are an eye-opener that perhaps we can use as a model in producing much-needed power supply to support our country’s “Build, Build, Build” agenda and bring about a new golden age of infrastructure.

Taiwan is a nation imbued with hardworking people, and an economy that is one of the most progressive in the region. It is also a model country for energy security.

This I learned firsthand when I had the privilege to visit the Linkou Power Plant in Taipei, Taiwan.

Historically, the premier power plant in Taiwan decommissioned two 300-megawatt (MW) coal plants in 2014, which was built in the late ’60s. What the country did was to adopt a well-thought and methodical approach to increase efficiencies in ensuring that Taiwan has new, robust power plants to provide consumers reliable and ample power supply. Today, these modern facilities contribute to 38 percent of Taiwan’s power requirements.

This proves that it pays to replace ageing power plants with a new one that employs modern and environment-friendly technology.

Linkou has installed capacity of 800 MW per unit, producing 2,400 MW for the three power plants that use ultra-supercritical boiler (one-through) technology. This technology allows Linkou to achieve an impressive high-level plant efficiency of 44.93 percent (gross, low-heating value or LHV).

With high efficiency ultra-supercritical boiler technology, Linkou’s new unit efficiency of 44.93 percent (LHV) increased by around seven percent compared to subcritical boilers.

Linkou invested $4.92 billion for the technology, a worthy investment to provide Taiwan energy security.

Most importantly, the technology is environment-friendly, allowing Linkou to reduce carbon emissions by almost 20 percent, compared to the performance of the old units. Its coal consumption per kilowatt hour (kWh) went down from 0.434 kg/kWh to 0.366 kg/kWh due to an advanced environmental protection equipment.

On top of this, Linkou Power Plant has a system control center that uses top-of-the-line technology and equipment, allowing it to efficiently perform video recording and monitoring of its operations real time. The center is directly linked to government online sites for tracking purposes, ensuring the plant is operating at maximum efficiency and cleanliness.

The efficient operations of Linkou Power Plant are an eye-opener that perhaps we can use as a model in producing much-needed power supply to support our country’s “Build, Build, Build” agenda and bring about a new golden age of infrastructure.

Many developing countries, including ours, can take the lead from Taiwan and move towards high-efficiency, low-emission and modern technologies for coal projects such as ultra-supercritical boiler.

It is not late to adopt and embrace new and modern technology to address the recurring yellow alerts plaguing our country even now that we have cooler weather.

The Philippines currently has a supercritical power plant but has yet to develop an ultra-supercritical power plant. Taiwan has more than 20 plants of such kind, including the 2,400-MW Linkou power plant.

It is my utmost desire to see our country progress and develop. My recent trip to Taiwan is enlightening and showed me how to best do this in Asia. I am appreciative of this masterclass on how to produce and supply electricity.