Among the four operators in Taiwan that can supply 3,4,5kV UHV power grids, TaTun is the only non-listed counter company, and the one with the smallest capitalization. Let’s take a look at how it plans ahead of time to compete in the emerging market. A cable rolled into a cylinder, weighing 17 metric tons, is being sent by a coupling truck to all major science parks and thermal power plants in Taiwan, where TaTun, a heavy power plant, is located in Taoyuan’s factory.

In 2022, Taiwan Power Company (TPC) proposed the “Strong Power Grid Project”, in which TPC is expected to invest a budget of NT$5,645 million over 10 years to upgrade Taiwan’s power grid system. TaTun, which started out as a copper wire manufacturer in 1949 and later expanded into wire and cable manufacturing, has successfully become one of Taipower’s suppliers for the 345kV ultra-high voltage power grid. “TaTun has already secured tens of billions of dollars in orders from Taipower, and the market is promising for the next ten years! Mr. Lin, the 50-year-old chairman of TaTun, was full of pride when he was interviewed by Today Weekly. The financial report of the Great Eastern, in 2003, revenue of 42.6 billion yuan, the EPS (EPS) of the company is 4.2 billion yuan, the EPS of the company is 4.2 billion yuan, the EPS of the company is 4.2 billion yuan. The company’s revenue in 2003 was $4.26 billion, and its EPS (earnings per share after tax) was $12.7 billion. This proves that Lin’s words are not just words. He is ambitious and intends to lead the company to enter the capital market, and is expected to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange by the end of May. In fact, there are not many companies in Taiwan that can supply ultra-high voltage cables, and TaTun is the smallest company in terms of capitalization and revenue among Taipower’s suppliers. TaTun is the smallest company in terms of capitalization and revenue among Taipower’s suppliers. “Anyone can submit a bid, but it depends on the capacity of the company, and the penalty for being late by one day is millions of dollars,” Lin said. Back in 2007, at the age of 33, Mr. Lin took over the company from his father. At that time, the cable industry was in a relative slump, and as a domestic-demand industry, it was affected by the poor domestic economy and the relocation of industries. Although the company did not incur any losses, he began to think about the company’s next step, “The manufacturing industry is a ranking game. “The manufacturing industry is a ranking contest, and it’s easy to be eliminated by staying put.” After taking stock of the company’s strengths and weaknesses, Lin decided to implement a major change. He observed that as demand for electricity increases in the future, higher voltage means more power can be transmitted with less loss. If he can promote the upgrading of cable specifications from 6-9 or 161kV to 3-4-5kV for ultra-high-voltage cables, he will have a chance to increase his company’s chances of winning, he said. “This requires boldness and foresight.” Mr. Chang Hsien-chang, the former director of construction for TEPCO’s Southern Region, recalled that 20 years ago, in order to solve the metropolitan area’s power supply problem, he asked 11 cable companies to try out the UHV power grid, but because the demand had not yet opened up, and it would take at least three to five years to go through the inspection process, in the end, only four of them nodded their heads.

We’ve waited 10 years, and now we’re here.

After deciding to fully develop the UHV power grid, in 2011, Lin re-drafted the investment plan, investing 400 million yuan and spending three years to introduce new equipment from Finland to ensure that the product can obtain the 3,4,5kV Taipower certification. Lin explains that UHV power grids have higher requirements for clean rooms than ordinary power grids, because if there are impurities in UHV cables, they can easily be pierced by foreign objects and lose a greater amount of power flow, which is why TaTun has to upgrade its clean rooms first. In addition, considering that UHV power grids are thicker and longer, the process of twisting copper wires into cables requires more precise angles. To achieve this, GRECO automated the setting of parameters, allowing machines to replace human labor and improve yields, and installed sensors on all equipment to monitor operation. In 15 years, TaTun was finally certified by Taipower and qualified to bid for the “contact line” to connect to the power system. Later, it took another year to become a qualified operator of “transmission lines” after ensuring safe operation. However, cables are an industry with a long product life cycle and slow payback, and TaTun’s development of ultra-high voltage power grids has only recently exploded due to the release of Taipower’s Ruggedized Power Grid Program. “At first, we didn’t know that (UHV grids) would become mainstream, but from the progress of advanced countries such as Japan, we can see that this is definitely the trend. Although it took 10 years for the program to bear fruit, it will be TaTun’s strength for the next 10 years,” Lin said.

Spreading the risk across energy storage systems

However, Chang analyzed that TaTun is the smallest of the four companies, and it is already a big challenge for Taipower to keep increasing its production capacity in the face of the huge demand; on the other hand, it is also a potential risk if the expansion of its production capacity fails to meet more demand as expected. In order to establish another support point outside of its own business, TaTun is also targeting another business in its grid-enforcement program, namely, the energy storage system site built in response to the instability of renewable energy power generation, which is used to store power in case of emergencies. “Originally, building cabinets was not part of my career plan, but the amendment to the Electricity Law was like an eye-opener,” he says. The amendment in Lin’s words was the passage of the third reading of the Electricity Law in 17 years, which opened the door for private green power generation to join the power generation and sales industry, and this allowed Lin to smell unprecedented energy business opportunities. Since 2011, TaTun has built three energy storage sites in Hualien, with a total capacity of 10.5 million kilowatts (MW). It can store a total of 10.2 MW (megawatts) of electricity, and collects remuneration fees by joining the AFC trading platform of Taipower, which is expected to inject hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue a year. He predicted that the next step in the transformation is to cross over from the cable industry to the energy industry, and strive for more capital to invest in energy storage projects, but of course, the prerequisite is to have the land and permission from Taipower before implementation, coupled with the influx of market players to suppress the price, the future is also a challenge. Whether TaTun will be able to build on the foundation of the ultra-high voltage power grid and grow a new growth curve, as he had hoped, will be TaTun’s next challenge.

Source of information-https://www.businesstoday.com.tw/article/category/183015/post/202405080031/