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
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS