Mailiao power station

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Mailiao power station (台塑麥寮發電廠) is an operating power station of at least 4200-megawatts (MW) in Mailiao, Yunlin County, Taiwan with multiple units, some of which are not currently operating.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Plant name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Mailiao power station	Mailiao, Yunlin County, Taiwan	23.803419, 120.189024 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the power station.

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Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):

• 1, 2, Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4, Unit 5, Unit 6, Unit 7: 23.803419, 120.189024

Project Details

Table 2: Unit-level details

Unit name	Status	Fuel(s)	Capacity (MW)	Technology	CHP	Start year	Retired year
1	Pre-construction	fossil gas: LNG	1200	combined cycle	not found	2028 (planned)	–
2	Pre-construction	fossil gas: LNG	1200	combined cycle	not found	2028 (planned)	–
Unit 1	Operating	coal: bituminous	600	supercritical	–	1999	2025 (planned)
Unit 2	Operating	coal: bituminous	600	supercritical	–	1999	2025 (planned)
Unit 3	Operating	coal: bituminous	600	supercritical	–	2000	2025 (planned)
Unit 4	Operating	coal: bituminous	600	supercritical	–	2002	2025 (planned)
Unit 5	Operating	coal: bituminous	600	supercritical	–	2002	2025 (planned)
Unit 6	Operating	coal: bituminous	600	supercritical	–	2000	2025 (planned)
Unit 7	Operating	coal: bituminous	600	supercritical	–	2002	2025 (planned)

CHP is an abbreviation for Combined Heat and Power. It is a technology that produces electricity and thermal energy at high efficiencies. Coal units track this information in the Captive Use section when known.

Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details

Unit name	Owner	Parent
1	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
2	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
Unit 1	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
Unit 2	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
Unit 3	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
Unit 4	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
Unit 5	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
Unit 6	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]
Unit 7	Mai-Liao Power Corp [100%]	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Petrochemical Corp [24.9%]; Formosa Plastics Corp [24.9%]; Nan Ya Plastics Corp [24.9%]

Project-level coal details

• Coal source(s): imported

Background

It appears to be separate from the smaller Mailiao Formosa Petrochemical power station, which also burns coal.

Two new natural gas units, each with a capacity of 2,400MW, are expected to be constructed at the plant site in 2025.

Mailiao is a 7 x 600 MW supercritical coal plant in Mailiao, commissioned from 1999 to 2002. The power station is owned by the Mai-Liao Power Corporation (MPC) and Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC). Coal is imported via an adjacent coal port.

In response to a new government policy related to Independent Power Plants (IPP), Formosa Plastics Corp. (FPC), Nan-Ta Plastics Corp.(NPC), Formosa Chemical-Fiber Corp. (FCFC), and Formosa Petrochemical Corp. (FPCC) appear to have co-invested and established a new company, Mai-Liao Power Corporation (MPC) in 1996. MPC initially gained an 1,800 MW capacity contract allowing it to become the biggest IPP in Taiwan with FP1 commissioned in June 1999, FP2 in September 1999, and FP3 in September 2000.

The units at the power station are often referred to as Units 1-5 (1999-2002) and Units A-B (2000, 2002). Five pulverized coal-fired units appear to be owned by MPC and two pulverized coal-fired co-generation units appear to be owned by FPCC.

The power station is or was the world's sixth largest coal-fired power plant and causes serious air pollution. For example, in 2015, the Yunlin county government requested Formosa take responsibility and loadshed to suppress the air pollutants during the high pollution season, usually around October to March. In addition, in 2017, the power station reached a coal-burning quota, putting it in non-compliance with the county’s environmental regulations.

Formosa spent 1.9 billion yuan to install wet electrostatic precipitators and low-nitrogen burners in coal-fired power units, with construction expected to be completed in 2021.

Planned retirement and gas-fueled replacement

In 2016, the legislature’s Economics Committee passed a nonbinding resolution that privately owned coal-fired power plants should be transformed to gas power plants before their electricity supply contracts with Taipower can be renewed. The committee said the coal-fired power plants should suspend operations if they cannot be transformed into gas power plants and that Taipower should not renew the contracts if privately owned utilities fail to do so. This appeared to include the Mailiao station, whose contract with Taipower reportedly expires in 2024.

In June 2017, Formosa Plastics Group signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Yunlin County Government and the Energy Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, investing a total of 57 billion yuan in the construction of natural gas power plants and receiving stations. However, Formosa Plastics was then hoping that coal-fired and gas-fired power plants would run in parallel after 2025, and it had not yet made progress in negotiating with the Bureau of Industry to build natural gas receiving station sites. That year, the power station was facing the expiration of multiple unit licenses and the County government was reluctant to issue new licenses. Formosa Plastics therefore promised to change its petcoke to coal-fired, and signed a memorandum with the county government to convert coal-fired power generation to natural gas power generation in 2025.

According to the 2018 National Electricity Resources Supply & Demand Report ("107年全國電力資源供需報告"), Mailiao No. 1 and No. 2 were to be decommissioned in 2024, and No. 3 in 2025, with the plant fully decommissioned in 2025. (Is was unclear how Mialiao Nos. 1-3 relate to the station's unit 1-7.)

In March 2021, the Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua stated: "If we can build an LNG power plant in Mailiao and replace existing coal-fired plants, that would help greatly in our goal of reducing the use of coal and air pollution. We will be happy to assist [Formosa Plastics Group] in such a project."

As of May 2021, a new natural gas unit appears to be expected to operate by June 2027 at the earliest. Some have raised concerns about potential future electricity shortages given the potential coal units retirements scheduled for 2024 and 2025.

According to reporting in June 2024, Taipower's original contract with Formosa Plastics for Unit 1 had expired in May 2024, but the contract was extended until 2025.

Capacity uncertainty

In May 2022, reporting on Formosa Plastics Group's energy transition listed the plant as 3 X 600 MW, rather than 7 X 600 MW. Various other reports in 2021 and 2022 referred only to the 3 x 600 MW units and implied that they alone constitute the total capacity of the power station. Further, Mai-Liao Power Corporation's annual generation reports from 2018-2023 list only the three 600 MW units (total 1,800 MW) in their capacity reporting, indicating that no further capacity is in operation at the Mailiao power station.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including interactive maps of the power stations, downloadable datasets, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker and the Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.