A fire at Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) Wanlong substation in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山) yesterday morning caused more than 300,000 households in Taipei and New Taipei City to temporarily lose power, the Taipei City Government said, adding that there were no casualties.
The city government said that Taipower reported a mechanical malfunction at its Taipei primary substation at 10:42am yesterday, which led to the fire.
The substation’s 161 kilovolt (kV) and 69kV power supply systems were shut off, leading to a power outage in some parts of Taipei’s Muzha (木柵) area and New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), the city government said.
Photo: CNA
The Taipei Fire Department said that it immediately dispatched firefighters after receiving a report at 9:56am that a power transformer at the Wanlong substation had caught fire and was emitting heavy smoke.
Twenty fire trucks and two ambulances, along with 57 personnel, were sent to the substation, and the fire was put out at 10:26am with no casualties, it said.
The city said many residents called the 1999 hotline to report power and water outages.
The Taipei Water Department said that due to the power outage, several water purification plants and booster pump stations were shut down, and although emergency generators allowed operations to resume, water pressure in some parts of the city was affected.
Taipower restored power after 10:20am, and the booster pump stations resumed operations, he said.
A Taipower report at 11am said that 305,418 households in Taipei’s Wenshan District and New Taipei City’s Sindian District had been affected by the outage.
Taipower held a news conference in the afternoon to explain the incident and apologize.
The Wanlong substation’s No. 5 distribution transformer had a malfunction that caused its insulating oil to catch fire and smoke, which led to an insulation failure, and caused power supply systems to shut down, Taipower spokesman Chang Ting-shu (張廷抒) said.
Power was restored to the affected households and facilities by 1:07pm, he added.
Taipower dismissed rumors that the nation has an insufficient power supply; that it had to step down the voltage, which caused the outage; or that more than 10,000 liters of oil were stored under the substation, which prevented water from being used to extinguish the fire.
While oil was stored under the substation, the power outage was not associated with national supply and demand, as the operating reserve margin was as high as 37.17 percent when the fire broke out, indicating sufficient supply, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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