Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-16

Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) racked up more than NT$7 billion (US$234.54 million) in the first half of the year. That’s in stark contrast with the NT$24.7 billion (more than US$800 billion) surplus in the first half of 2016.

Taipower posted the biggest gains of any of the state-run companies in 2016 with a surplus of NT$39.6 billion (over US$1.3 billion). But it was the only state-run enterprise to not report a profit in the first six months of 2017.

Taipower attributed its losses in 2017 to both weakened revenues and higher costs. It said that revenues went down because of a 9.56% cut in electricity rates that took effect in April, 2016. That has led in part to accumulative losses for the company of more than NT$100 billion (US$3.3 billion).

On the cost side, the drop in Taipower’s nuclear-power generation because of reactor shutdowns and maintenance forced the company to buy extra fuel oil and natural gas to make up for the power deficit.    [SOURCE]