Taiwan suffers massive power cut, affecting millions of households (updated)

ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES

15/08/2017 16:36

(Adds details) 
    TAIPEI, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Taiwan suffered a massive power 
blackout on Tuesday evening that hit businesses and residential 
homes, affecting close to seven million households, the 
government said.  
    The overall impact of the power cut to companies on the 
island, home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) 
 2330.TW , the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major 
supplier to Apple Inc  AAPL.O , was not immediately known.   
    ChipMOS Technologies Inc  8150.TW  said in a statement it 
was still assessing the scope of damage after confirming it had 
not fully recovered its electricity by early evening.  
    The stock exchange said markets would open as usual on 
Wednesday.  
    The outage left millions of homes without power amid 
sweltering heat and hit offices and factories in the heavily 
industrialized island of nearly 24 million people that hosts 
some of the world's leading technology manufacturers. 
    The power outage was caused by a human technical error at 
state-owned CPC Corporation, which supplies gas across Taiwan, 
and ultimately affected the operations of a state-owned Taiwan 
Power Company power plant in northwestern Taoyuan, spokespersons 
from CPC Corporation and Taiwan Power Company said at a news 
conference on Tuesday evening.   
    Taiwan Power Company's outage at its Taoyuan plant caused 
six generators to stop working, resulting in a massive blackout 
across Taiwan, according to a Taiwan Power Company spokesperson. 
    President Tsai Ing-wen apologised on her Facebook page for 
the blackout, saying electricity supply was a national security 
issue for Taiwan.     
    "Therefore, we demand of relevant departments, in a short 
timely manner, to give all the people in the nation a clarifying 
report, why is it that our electricity supply system, due to one 
misunderstanding, will create such big damage?", she said.  
    "We must reform the system. I will make this an important 
point for thorough inspection reforms in the future."          
    Around seven million homes were expected to be affected 
throughout Tuesday evening, representing about half the number 
of all Taiwan households, during a power ration, a Taiwan Power 
Company spokesperson said.       
    CPC Corporation said at the press conference it accepted 
responsiblity for the power outage and it is currently further 
investigating the cause of the outage.   
    Taiwan's Minister of Economics Affairs Chih-Kung Lee offered 
to resign on Tuesday as a result of the blackout, the government 
said in a separate statement Tuesday night. Premier Lin Chuan 
verbally accepted Lee's resignation, it added.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nH9N1EP015   
    Lee's formal resignation letter is expected later this week, 
the government said. If Lee steps down as expected, he will do 
so just over a year after assuming office.  
    The power blackout that swept Taiwan on Tuesday was the most 
severe since the 1999 Jiji earthquake, according to a Taiwan 
Power company spokesperson.  
    The government said it expected to resolve the power 
blackout within hours of its occurence on Tuesday.     
 
     
     
 
 (Reporting by Jess Macy Yu; Additional reporting by Jeanny Kao, 
Liang-sa Loh and Taiwan bureau; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree 
and Ralph Boulton) 
 ((JessicaMacy.Yu@thomsonreuters.com; +886 2 2500-4882;)) 
 
Keywords: TAIWAN POWER/OUTAGES