Taiwan Cogeneration Corp returns to business after settling with Taiwan Power

Taiwan Cogeneration Corp yesterday said three of the company’s power-generation subsidiaries had settled legal disputes with state-run Taiwan Power Co.

Taiwan Cogeneration said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that three independent power producers (IPPs) under its purview had reach new agreements with Taipower over the terms of electricity purchase contracts.

Wu said the IPPs had reached new pacts in accordance with a draft proposal approved by Taiwan Cogeneration’s board on Nov. 22 last year.

“Star Energy Corp, Sun Ba Power Corp and Kuang Power Co have respectively settled their cases with Taipower today at the Taipei District Court,” Taiwan Cogeneration vice president Henry Wu said in the statement.

The state-run utility filed lawsuits against the four IPPs in October last year after negotiations on adjusting the terms of their contracts broke down after several rounds.

Taiwan Cogeneration did not disclose the terms of the new contracts, nor did it say whether the fourth IPP subsidiary, Hsing Yuan Power Corp, would follow suit soon. Taiwan Cogeneration holds a 35 percent stake in Star Energy, 32.5 percent of Sun Ba, 35 percent of Kuo Kuang and 33.67 percent of Hsing Yuan.

The company is itself a Taipower subsidiary.

Taipower’s move came after the legislature’s Economics Committee slashed NT$9.5 billion from a budget of NT$142.68 billion that the utility had allocated for purchasing electricity from businesses using cogeneration systems and from IPPs this year.

Taipower had also said it planned to formally apply to the Atomic Energy Council in February or March next year to fill the reactors of the yet-to-be-completed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District, New Taipei City, with uranium fuel.

Taipower may start commercial operations of the controversial power plant in 2015 at the earliest.