A natural gas supply disruption to a major power plant in Taoyuan’s Datan Township (大潭) yesterday caused blackouts throughout the nation and subsequent power rationing, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) resigned from his position to shoulder responsibility.
The Cabinet accepted Lee’s oral resignation immediately.
Photo: Chung Hung-liang, Taipei Times
About 6.68 million users, half of the nation’s 13 million users, faced power rationing from 6pm to 9pm last night as state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) was striving to restore power generation from the plant, Taipower chairman Chu Wen-chen (朱文成) told a media briefing.
The latest power rationing was the first since 2002 because of insufficient natural gas supplies to power generators.
The malfunction will not affect supplies today, Chu told reporters.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public
Power rationing was lifted at 9:40pm.
The latest malfunction eliminated 4.7 gigawatts (GW) from power supplies yesterday when power consumption hit another record high of 36.45GW at the day’s peak.
All six generators at the power plant shut down abruptly yesterday afternoon when a natural gas supply line was cut, possibly due to human error, gas supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 中油) told reporters.
Photo: CNA
CPC supplies 3.5 million tonnes of natural gas to Taipower a year, the company said.
Seventeen counties and cities suffered the power outage, the ministry said.
The Central Taiwan Science Park and South Taiwan Science Park, which house the nation’s major semiconductor and flat-panel manufacturers, were not affected by the power disruption, Chu said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The nation’s two biggest semiconductor companies, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), said their production lines in Hsinchu and Tainan operated normally.
Memory chipmakers Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Micron Taiwan were also unaffected.
Local electronics makers, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), as well as chip testers and packagers Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密), experienced short power outages.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s biggest chip tester and packager, said its plants in Kaohsiung suffered a power outage for about one hour before production lines resumed.
ASE is still calculating the cost of lost production time.
ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂), the world’s second-largest LCD driver IC packaging and testing service provider, said production lines were suspended for between two and three hours.
Telecom operators Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大) and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) said their base stations were affected, but have resumed operations.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) said no significant effects were seen, as it has back-up power units.
Following the outage, Lee tendered his resignation, which Premier Lin Chuan (林全) approved, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
A written resignation is to be delivered today or tomorrow after power generation problems are resolved, Hsu said.
The Cabinet had not yet decided who will succeed Lee, Hsu said.
Lin is to make a formal report about the power failure at the Legislative Yuan if the legislative caucuses consider it necessary, Hsu said.
The outage should not necessitate restarting nuclear reactors because there is no power shortage, Hsu said.
Some industrial parks and a science park in Miaoli County were affected, and authorities are calculating the losses, he said, adding that Taipower and CPC are expected to handle compensation.
Additional reporting by Chen Wei-han
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS