TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over five million households have been affected by widespread blackouts across Taiwan, with the government pledging to restore power to northern Taiwan before noon.
At approximately 9 a.m. on Thursday, whole districts of Tainan City and Kaohsiung City began suffering power outages, while rolling blackouts also occurred in central and northern parts of the country. Areas known to have been affected include Taipei City, Taichung City, Taoyuan City, Kaohsiung City, Keelung City, New Taipei City, Hualien City, Keelung City, and Tainan City.
According to Taipower officials, an equipment malfunction at a switchyard in the Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung City's Yong'an District caused an imbalance in the southern power grid. This initially triggered the Longci Substation's self-protection mechanism to disconnect from the grid.
This caused an instant loss of 10.5 million kilowatts, tripping the self-protection mechanism of power plants across southern Taiwan to disconnect from the southern grid. Given the sudden disconnection of so many power plants, the northern and central grid's protection mechanisms also kicked in, causing power outages across central and northern Taiwan as well.
President of Taipower Chung Bin-li (鍾炳利) said that five million households had been affected by the power outage. Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that power in northern Taiwan will be restored before noon, while electricity to southern areas will be gradually restored in the afternoon.
(CNA photo)
(CNA photo)
(CNA photo)
(CNA photo)
