An increasing amount of electricity is required in Taiwan
in light ofcontinuous economic growth. Electricity power is one
of the major input factorsin economic development. To
continually support the economic to growth andmeet power
requirements in the future, load forecasting has become
veryimportant for electric utilities. Moreover, an accurate
load forecast can behelpful in developing a power supply
strategy, financing planning, marketresearch, and electricity
management. Up to now, generalstyles of loadforecasting
emphasized on aggregate or sector load forecasting in Taiwan,but
aggregate or sector load forecasting can not predict where the
loadtakes place and not be helpful in transmission line or
substation construction. Therefore, this study tries to
predict regional electricity demand andelectric load. And
further, based on the objectives of reliability andeconomics,
this study also tries to setup a multiobjective programming
modelto formulate the optimal electricity supple system in order
to increase thereliability of power supply in Taiwan. Results of
this study could be thebasis for decision makers to formulate
electricity supply in the future. From the forecasting
results of this study, power needs in Yanlin, Chiayi,Tainan
areas and middle area of Taiwan would increase faster than those
in therest areas of Taiwan. How to program electricity
infrastructure in theseareas to promote the quality of power
supply would merit attentions. From the planning results of
this study, the unit power generation ofIndependent Power
Production (IPP) would affect the usage rate of Taipower''
sthermal units. Among all kinds of thermal units, Taipower''s
gas-fired unitswould be the most influenced units because of
IPP''s power generation. Theaverage capacity factor of Taipower''s
gas-fired units were 58% in 1995, wouldreduce to 50% in 2001,
and 16% in 2006. For the optimal power generation plans in
the future, the scheme of opencompetitive to decide the power
supply structure would be a practicable plan.If the policy that
programs the generation mixes based on the characteristicsof
power unit operation, it would be more inflexible and workable
in policyimplementing.