Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) president Wang Yao-ting (王耀庭) on Saturday announced his resignation following a spate of power outages, but Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) has asked him to remain in his post.
Wang wrote a letter saying that he would resign to take responsibility for a string of power outages that had affected several parts of Taoyuan over the past few days, as well as the tight power supply on April 15 that was caused by generators tripping.
Wang said he was apologizing to people across the country and taking responsibility by submitting his resignation, because of misgivings people had about the stability of Taipower’s electricity, which had caused a social disturbance.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chen called Wang and left him a text message to persuade him not to resign, Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, which supervises Taipower, said it was working hard to convince Wang to stay, while the Taipower Labor Union said it strongly supported Wang keeping his position.
Union president Wu Yu-pin (吳有彬) defended Taipower in a statement on Saturday.
More than 350,000 households and businesses had power outages after an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale struck off Hualien County on April 3, but 90 percent of them had power restored within two hours, because 6,000 Taipower workers rushed to complete repairs in affected areas, Wu said.
The rapid restoration of electricity was due to proper dispatching and resource planning, by Taipower, which prevented the power supply system from completely collapsing and causing power disruptions, he said.
The union strongly supports keeping Wang in his post, and urges the government to not let him step down because of the recent power outages, Wu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KIMT) Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) called Wang Yao-ting a “scapegoat” for the frequent power outages, which she said were caused by the government’s energy policy.
Wang Yao-ting should stay on to handle the the power failure problem, KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) and Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生), who doubles as chairman of Taipower, should step down instead, Hsu said, adding that that power shortages and blackouts are due to bad government policy and not the fault of the company.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) said Wang Yao-ting’s top priority is to carry out the government’s plan to strengthen the resilience of the national grid and review its energy policy and energy consumption structure.
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