A fire that broke out at Taichung Power Plant yesterday morning has been put out, causing no disruptions to the nation’s power supply, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said.
The fire started at 7:03am on a conveyor belt at the coal-fired plant and was extinguished about three hours later, said the Taichung Harbor Fire Brigade, which responded to the emergency, dispatching 71 firefighters to the site.
Taipower said that the fire destroyed the conveyor system that was shuttling coal from a pier to the plant’s storage area.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
Coal would be transported to the storage by vehicle until the conveyor system is restored, it said.
The power generation units at the plant would continue operations, as the coal in the storage area would be sufficient for 15 days, the utility said, vowing that there would be no power disruptions.
“The fire was not at the power generation facility itself, or even at the coal storage tower itself, but a fire on the conveyor belt,” Taipower spokesman Chang Ting-shu (張廷舒) said. “Coal supply remains adequate, and the incident will not impact Taiwan’s electricity generation capacity.”
A preliminary investigation suggests that the rubber conveyor belt might have overheated, Chang said, adding that investigation into the incident would continue.
The Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau yesterday said that the power plant would be fined NT$5 million (US$180,479) for environmental pollution.
Separately, Chang also confirmed that more than 60,000 households lost power in Tainan for about 45 minutes on Wednesday night.
“The cause is unclear, but the outage could have been due to downed electrical lines amid a storm,” he said.
Due to rainy weather during the past couple of days, peak electricity use has decreased, Chang said, adding that Taipower expects ample power supply next week.
Additional reporting by Angelica Oung
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