A natural gas supply disruption to a major power plant in Taoyuan’s Datan Township (大潭) yesterday caused blackouts throughout the nation and subsequent power rationing, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) resigned from his position to shoulder responsibility.
The Cabinet accepted Lee’s oral resignation immediately.
Photo: Chung Hung-liang, Taipei Times
About 6.68 million users, half of the nation’s 13 million users, faced power rationing from 6pm to 9pm last night as state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) was striving to restore power generation from the plant, Taipower chairman Chu Wen-chen (朱文成) told a media briefing.
The latest power rationing was the first since 2002 because of insufficient natural gas supplies to power generators.
The malfunction will not affect supplies today, Chu told reporters.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public
Power rationing was lifted at 9:40pm.
The latest malfunction eliminated 4.7 gigawatts (GW) from power supplies yesterday when power consumption hit another record high of 36.45GW at the day’s peak.
All six generators at the power plant shut down abruptly yesterday afternoon when a natural gas supply line was cut, possibly due to human error, gas supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 中油) told reporters.
Photo: CNA
CPC supplies 3.5 million tonnes of natural gas to Taipower a year, the company said.
Seventeen counties and cities suffered the power outage, the ministry said.
The Central Taiwan Science Park and South Taiwan Science Park, which house the nation’s major semiconductor and flat-panel manufacturers, were not affected by the power disruption, Chu said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The nation’s two biggest semiconductor companies, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), said their production lines in Hsinchu and Tainan operated normally.
Memory chipmakers Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Micron Taiwan were also unaffected.
Local electronics makers, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), as well as chip testers and packagers Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密), experienced short power outages.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s biggest chip tester and packager, said its plants in Kaohsiung suffered a power outage for about one hour before production lines resumed.
ASE is still calculating the cost of lost production time.
ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂), the world’s second-largest LCD driver IC packaging and testing service provider, said production lines were suspended for between two and three hours.
Telecom operators Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大) and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) said their base stations were affected, but have resumed operations.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) said no significant effects were seen, as it has back-up power units.
Following the outage, Lee tendered his resignation, which Premier Lin Chuan (林全) approved, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
A written resignation is to be delivered today or tomorrow after power generation problems are resolved, Hsu said.
The Cabinet had not yet decided who will succeed Lee, Hsu said.
Lin is to make a formal report about the power failure at the Legislative Yuan if the legislative caucuses consider it necessary, Hsu said.
The outage should not necessitate restarting nuclear reactors because there is no power shortage, Hsu said.
Some industrial parks and a science park in Miaoli County were affected, and authorities are calculating the losses, he said, adding that Taipower and CPC are expected to handle compensation.
Additional reporting by Chen Wei-han
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
RSS