AsiaElec: Taiwan realises the value of STATCOMs, places order with Mitsubishi

In news from Taiwan last week, Shihlin Electric and Engineering Corporation, a local affiliate of Japan’s leading Mitsubishi Electric, revealed that it had received an order from an agency in the country for a synchronous compensator.

More commonly known as a STATCOM, and used in achieving wide-ranging grid stability in areas prone to power outages and unexpected surges, the device in question was ordered by Taiwan’s state-owned utility, Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower).

With STATCOMs typically deployed to add stability to a grid, but increasingly in recent years also being employed to allow increased accommodation of irregular flows of renewable energy into or away from a given area, the order is being seen as a major step in Taipower finally realising the fragility of its nationwide grid infrastructure.

Power cuts in areas away from government ministries in the capital city, Taipei, are not unusual. And with the nation’s nuclear power stations (NPPs) now locked down as part of a 2016 presidential election campaign promise by sitting President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan has made little progress in terms of satisfactory replacements for capacity given up with the abandonment of nuclear power.

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