President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday (March 4) apologised for the widespread blackouts of the previous day, while the government demanded a report from state utility Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) within three days.

Human error at the Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung City was named as the most likely cause for the blackout Thursday (March 3) morning which affected 5.49 million households nationwide.

During a visit to the plant Friday morning, Tsai apologised for the inconvenience to the public and said she had told Taipower to strengthen the resilience of its basic electricity production infrastructure, CNA reported.

She added that Premier Su Tseng-chang had requested the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), which oversees state-run enterprises, to present a full report on the incident within three days.

The blackouts happened outside peak hours, which showed the problem was not due to power shortages, the president said. Instead, the distribution of electricity and the resilience of basic equipment were the issues to be dealt with, while more thinking was also needed about procedures to trigger backup systems in the case of an emergency, she emphasized.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4462083

Category: Taiwan