The power plant consists of ten coal-fired units with nominal capacity of 550 MW each. Four original units were commissioned in 1991 and 1992. In 1996–1997, four additional units were added. The eight older units have a total estimated coal requirement of around 12 million tonnes of bituminous and 2.5 million tonnes of sub-bituminous coal a year. In August 2005 and June 2006, 550 MW sub-critical pressure units 9 and 10 were installed on the adjacent land reclaimed by depositing ash. In addition to ten coal-fired steam turbines, Taichung Power Plant has another 4 gas turbines and 22 wind turbines which add another 280 MW and 44 MW additional capacity respectively.
Components
The plant has a complex conveyor system. There are three belts from the harbour which bring the coal into the plant via six ship unloaders, two bucket type and four screw type. The coal is either directed straight to a unit or stacked in the coal yard by five stacker/reclaimers. The coal can be reclaimed from here and sent to any of the 10 units. There is built in redundancy in the critical conveyor paths. All of the belts are equipped with fire detection system to monitor the temperature along the belt and to send alarms in the case of fire to minimize damage. The coal receiving facilities were completed in 1992. The boiler for each unit is drum type, water-cooled, naturally circulated with dry bottom furnace, balance draft and coal and oil-fired capability. The steam turbine for each unit is a tandem-compound with four flow exhaust, single reheat and 550 MW rated capacity. The generators are supercritical steam high power density. The electrostatic precipitator removes 99.8% of the particulates and classifies them for industrial cement and land reclamation. The power plant is connected to the grid via a 345 kV switchyard.
Function
The power plant is designed for base load service and is able for daily startup and shutdown operation. The plant's electricity is being sold to Taipower under a 25-year power purchase agreement.
Fuel supply
The power plant uses 12 million tons of bituminous and 2.5 million tons of sub-bituminous coal a year. Taipower buys 70% of the plant coal supply through long-term contracts from Australia, United States, South Africa, Indonesia and other sources. Indonesia is the prime source for the sub-bituminous coal. The remaining 30% of its coal supply is purchased on the spot market.
Pollution
During warnings by the scientific community about increasing prevalence of lung cancer in Taiwan in December 2015, it was claimed that Taichung Power Plant, along with the Sixth Naphtha Cracking Plant of the Formosa Plastics Group account for roughly seventy percent of the air pollution in the Central Taiwanregion of the country, emitting large quantities of sulfur oxides.
Future expansion
There is an expansion plan to build two new 800 MW units by 2016.
Events
2017
On 4 August 2017, unit 7 generator of the plant tripped at 9:25 a.m. due to low vacuum in its steam condenser system which triggered the safety protection system. The event caused a power reduction of 500 MW but it was quickly restored and restarted at 12:35 p.m. On 5 August 2017, unit 1 generator of the plant malfunctioned due to a broken boiler pipe which led to the reduction of 530 MW power generation.
