Massive power blackout in Taiwan after accident at major plant

The outage was caused by a malfunction at a major power generation plant

Yimou Lee
Thursday 03 March 2022 12:42 EST
Comments
Taiwan’s capital Taipei also lost power
Taiwan’s capital Taipei also lost power (AFP via Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Taiwan is gradually restoring power supply, the state-run power operator said on Thursday, after much of the island’s south and five million households were hit by an outage caused by a malfunction at a major power generation plant.

Hydro and other power plants were brought on line to provide electricity, said Taipower, which blamed a problem with a transformer at the Hsinta power plant in the southern city of Kaohsiung for a trip at an ultra-high voltage substation.

The major coal-fired station provides about a seventh of Taiwan’s power.

“I am very sorry for this major loss of electricity, and am extremely apologetic for the inconvenience caused, especially for the south,” Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua told reporters.

Asked whether the plant had been hacked, cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng said authorities could not rule out any cause.

“It all needs further proof and investigation, which requires evidence.”

The cut affected about a third of Taiwan’s power supply, hitting about 5 million households, Mr Wang said, adding it was not immediately clear what triggered the problem.

Back-up power supply was at 24 per cent at the time of the incident, Mr Wang said, adding that it was not triggered by insufficient supply, the root cause of major outages in May, when Taiwan was grappling with drought.

The Hsinchu science park, home to many large semiconductor companies such as TSMC, said it did not suffer outages.

The southern Tainan Science Park, where TSMC also has plants, said it experienced a sudden drop of voltage in the morning that did not affect production, however.

TSMC said “power dips” at some of its wafer fabrication plants ran from about 400 milliseconds to more than a second. The company later said there had been no impact on operations.

Some parts of northern Taiwan, including the capital Taipei, also lost power. President Tsai Ing-wen has ordered an investigation, her office said.

Normal service has resumed on the high-speed rail line between north and south after three trains were affected, the transport ministry said.

After last year’s two major outages brought criticism for the government, President Tsai has vowed to scrutinise electricity management.

Reuters

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in