With great power comes a great electricity load.
A major power outage on the island of Taiwan left a huge part of the island in the dark. A reported accident at a power plant is being claimed to be the cause of the outage.
The power outage led to power failures in major cities in Taiwan which also includes the capital city Taipei. Here are more details about the power outage:
What Happened?
According to a report by the Central News Agency linked with the state and a statement from Wang Meihua, the economic affairs minister of the country, the power outage occurred at a power plant located in the southern part of Taiwan after an accident occurred.
Wang also added that the ministry will be dealing with the matter urgently and provide a fix as soon as possible. She also claimed that this outage has affected about five million households in the countryβs affected regions.
Taipower, a state-run power operator claimed that an accident occurred at the Xingda power plant located in Kaosiung, the southern city of Taiwan. They also added that they will be activating backup power sources as soon as possible.
The power outage occurred at around 9 am Taiwan time or 0100 GMT on the island spanning from the capital city Taipei towards central city Taichung as well as the Pingtung County in the islandβs southern region.
The Effect and Repercussions
The Xingda power plant supposedly provides one-seventh part of Taiwan with power, so this outage left a large portion of the country without power. TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company limited claimed that a large number of their plants had experienced short βpower dipsβ.
TSMC is supposedly the largest contract chipmaker in the world. A report from Reuters also claimed that TSMC said that they are currently checking for possible impact on the power plants.
The economic affairs minister apologized for the outage in a press conference held on Thursday where she also added that they will be immediately working on a solution and will be providing the northern parts of the island with power by afternoon and the southern parts of Taiwan will have its electricity back by midday.
Urgente blackout em Taiwan agora pic.twitter.com/Fu9YBi3gQp
— π ππ₯ππ§ππ¨ ππ πππππ¬π (@falandodedefesa) March 3, 2022
Livestream of President Meeting US Secretary Canceled
The Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen was supposed to have a meeting with Mike Pompeo, the United States secretary of state. However, because of the power outage, the president said on her Facebook account that the live stream of the meeting which was scheduled earlier will have to be temporarily canceled.
Thank you, Secretary @MikePompeo, for your commitment to upholding our nationβs security & strengthening #Taiwan–#US ties. This honour is a symbol of #Taiwanβs gratitude for your contributions to our partnership. pic.twitter.com/aF08mNRuhh
— θ‘θ±ζ Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) March 3, 2022
This is not the first time such a major outage occurred in Taiwan and many outages are occasionally witnessed in the island country. In the year 2017, about 6.68 million households were affected by a massive power blackout that affected almost half of the country.