There were rolling blackouts across Taiwan yesterday due to a grid malfunction at the Hsinta Power Plant (興達電廠) in Kaohsiung’s Yongan District (永安), while Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said that it was working “as hard as possible to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
At 2:37pm, a malfunction at an ultra-high-voltage substation in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) triggered four generators at the Hsinta plant to go offline, cutting power output by 2.2 million kilowatts and prompting Taipower to initiate rolling blackouts nationwide as it worked on the problem.
Taipower spokesman Chang Ting-shu (張廷抒) told a news conference in Taipei that the blackouts were not due to power usage exceeding supply, but a grid problem.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
“Rumors that we ran out of power or something went wrong with the Hsinta plant are false” Chang said. “This is a grid malfunction.”
A bus, or connection feeder, had failed at the Lujhu substation, which caused the voltage to drop precipitously, Chang said.
As emergency controls kicked in, two coal-fired generators and two liquified natural gas generators were shut down at the Hsinta plant, he said.
Photo: CNA
The exact cause of the bus failure remains unknown, Chang said.
The rolling blackouts were implemented at 50-minute intervals, affecting 4 million customers in total, with the goal of having power fully restored sometime yesterday evening, Taipower said.
Later, it said that electricity was restored ahead of schedule at 8pm and no more blackouts were expected.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
The first round of outages reduced total output by 3 million kilowatts between 3pm and 3:50pm.
The second round cut output by 3 million kilowatts between 3:50pm and 4:40pm, it said.
The third round reduced output by 3.5 million kilowatts between 4:40pm and 5:30pm; the fourth round was from 5:30pm to 6:20pm; the fifth round was from 6:20pm to 7:10pm, and the sixth was from 7:10pm to 8pm, Taipower said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) apologized to the nation later yesterday and said that power would be fully restored by 9:40pm.
Idle power generators were brought online in an attempt to fill the gap left by the Singda outages, Chang said.
“We are working to make sure this is resolved overnight,” he said. “Once we fix the grid, we can bring the Singda generators back online.”
The last major power outage in Taiwan, on Aug. 15, 2017, was caused by a natural gas supply disruption at the Datan Power Plant (大潭電廠) in Taoyuan.
It shut down, eliminating 4.7 million kilowatts of power supply.
Half of Taiwan lost power on a rotational basis for at least three hours, affecting many science parks.
Some of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) facilities reported brief power dips yesterday, but the power supply is currently normal, the company said in a statement.
“The electricity is being supplied as normal,” it said. “TSMC has taken emergency response measures and prepared generators to minimize potential impact.”
Operations at ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest chip packaging and testing services provider, had been affected, the company said in a text message, but the full impact was yet to be determined.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
RSS