A fire that broke out at Taiwan's third-largest power plant last night would not affect the nation's power supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said today.
The fire at the Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung mainly affected its new natural gas Unit 2, which had been in a test operation phase, Kung told reporters.
Photo: CNA
Its 2-1 main body is unharmed and its 2-2 body is to be carefully inspected by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) and its equipment provider, Kung added.
The plant's new natural gas Unit 1 was assessed to have no problems, Kung said.
To ensure an ample electricity supply, state-run Taipower does not rule out deploying backup units, he added.
Kung also apologized for the distress caused to residents.
Taipower said that preliminary assessments indicated that a gas leak in Unit 2 led to the fire.
The leak was detected at about 7:57pm, with the staff promptly stopping operations and reporting it, before the fire broke out at 8:05pm, Taipower said.
The Kaohsiung Fire Department arrived at 8:24pm and extinguished the fire, with no injuries reported.
The company pledged to investigate the cause of the leak and conduct comprehensive improvements to prevent similar incidents, as well as carry out inspections to see whether the damaged equipment needed replacement.
It added that it would regularly report on investigation updates and subsequent recovery matters.
Regarding concerns that the fire might have caused air pollution, Taipower said the Ministry of Environment and nearby air quality stations indicated there were no abnormalities.
The Hsinta Power Plant is a thermal power facility with the third-largest installed capacity in Taiwan.
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