About 5.49 million households yesterday lost power in one of the nation’s largest power disruptions since 2017 due to a switch malfunction at Kaohsiung’s Hsinta Power Plant (興達電廠), the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
The incident sent the power plant offline, leading to a circuit malfunction at the Longqi Extra High Voltage Substation (龍崎超高壓變電所), which caused several power plants in the south to shut down.
About 10.5 million kilowatts was lost during the incident, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
The Hsinta plant accounts for about 6 percent of the nation’s electricity production.
Taipower activated hydroelectric, liquefied natural gas and coal-fired power plants to fill the supply gap, it said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) last night requested reprimands for the massive blackouts, as Taipower chairman Yang Wei-fuu (楊偉甫) and president Chung Bin-li (鍾炳利) offered their resignations, which are subject to the Cabinet’s approval.
Photo: CNA
Major science parks reported only minor effects from the blackouts. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, said the incident had no significant impact on its production lines.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), the world’s No. 3 contract chipmaker, said the incident had brought production to a halt at its plant in the Tainan section of the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區), but it was manageable.
LCD panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) said that some of its manufacturing facilities experienced a sudden voltage drop, but operations remained normal, while Innolux Corp (群創) said power went off at one of its plants, but that operations were recovering and it is evaluating the impact.
Power at the Kaohsiung section of the Southern Taiwan Science Park was fully restored by noon, the park’s administration said.
The ministry said that 48 industrial parks were affected by the blackout, and power had been restored to 36 of them as of yesterday afternoon.
Liu Chi-chuan (劉繼傳), operations management deputy director at the ministry’s Export Processing Zone Administration, said that 521 companies in industrial parks in the south were affected by the blackout, and power had been restored to 358 of them as of 1pm yesterday.
Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that the government had asked the ministry and Taipower to thoroughly investigate the cause of the outage.
The government would reprimand those responsible if the large-scale blackout was proven to have been caused by human error, Lo quoted Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as saying.
Wang said that human error was to blame for the blackout and that the ministry would complete its investigation in three days.
Additional reporting by CNA
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
FLOOD RECOVERY: “Post-Typhoon Danas reconstruction special act” is expected to be approved on Thursday, the premier said, adding the flood control in affected areas would be prioritized About 200cm of rainfall fell in parts of southern Taiwan from Monday last week to 9am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Kaohsiung’s Taoyuan District (桃源) saw total rainfall of 2,205mm, while Pingtung County’s Sandimen Township (三地門) had 2,060.5mm and Tainan’s Nanhua District (南化) 1,833mm, according to CWA data. Meanwhile, Alishan (阿里山) in Chiayi County saw 1,688mm of accumulated rain and Yunlin County’s Caoling (草嶺) had 1,025mm. The Pingtung County Government said that 831 local residents have been pre-emptively evacuated from mountainous areas. A total of 576 are staying with relatives in low-lying areas, while the other 255 are in shelters. CWA forecaster
RSS