Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) president Wang Yao-ting (王耀庭) on Saturday announced his resignation following a spate of power outages, but Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) has asked him to remain in his post.
Wang wrote a letter saying that he would resign to take responsibility for a string of power outages that had affected several parts of Taoyuan over the past few days, as well as the tight power supply on April 15 that was caused by generators tripping.
Wang said he was apologizing to people across the country and taking responsibility by submitting his resignation, because of misgivings people had about the stability of Taipower’s electricity, which had caused a social disturbance.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chen called Wang and left him a text message to persuade him not to resign, Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, which supervises Taipower, said it was working hard to convince Wang to stay, while the Taipower Labor Union said it strongly supported Wang keeping his position.
Union president Wu Yu-pin (吳有彬) defended Taipower in a statement on Saturday.
More than 350,000 households and businesses had power outages after an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale struck off Hualien County on April 3, but 90 percent of them had power restored within two hours, because 6,000 Taipower workers rushed to complete repairs in affected areas, Wu said.
The rapid restoration of electricity was due to proper dispatching and resource planning, by Taipower, which prevented the power supply system from completely collapsing and causing power disruptions, he said.
The union strongly supports keeping Wang in his post, and urges the government to not let him step down because of the recent power outages, Wu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KIMT) Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) called Wang Yao-ting a “scapegoat” for the frequent power outages, which she said were caused by the government’s energy policy.
Wang Yao-ting should stay on to handle the the power failure problem, KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) and Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生), who doubles as chairman of Taipower, should step down instead, Hsu said, adding that that power shortages and blackouts are due to bad government policy and not the fault of the company.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) said Wang Yao-ting’s top priority is to carry out the government’s plan to strengthen the resilience of the national grid and review its energy policy and energy consumption structure.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS