Economics minister must resign: KMT
POWER TRIP: The KMT questioned whether Thursday’s power outage was caused by a problem with the distribution network, as the government said, or by power generation
By Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Branding the government’s energy policy as “problematic,” the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday demanded the resignation of Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) to take responsibility for wide-ranging power outages on Thursday.
The outages affected 8.46 million customers, Taiwan Power Co said, adding that a short-term rolling blackout was initiated across the country as an emergency measure after four generators tripped at the Singda Power Plant in Kaohsiung.
Taiwan hit by rolling power outages
GRID PROBLEM: A Taipower spokesman said that the blackouts were not due to usage exceeding supply, nor were they because of a problem at the Singda plant
By Angelica Oung / Staff reporter
There were rolling blackouts across Taiwan yesterday due to a grid malfunction at the Singda Power Plant (興達電廠) in Kaohsiung’s Yongan District (永安), while Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said that it was working “as hard as possible to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
At 2:37pm, a malfunction at an ultra-high-voltage substation in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) triggered four generators at the Singda plant to go offline, cutting power output by 2.2 million kilowatts and prompting Taipower to initiate rolling blackouts nationwide as it worked on the problem.
Taiwan Business TOPICS
Although 100-day reviews are typically the norm, I was tempted to use my inaugural President’s View as a self-report on my first 30 days in Taiwan. But it would be more fun to grade you, Dear Readers, with the following “report card.” How have staff, members, and partners performed at breaking in their new Chamber president?
Statistics (A+): With 700 attendees, including a record 157 governmental officials who were personally thanked for their contributions to fostering a friendly business environment, you aced the Hsieh Nien Fan test for the 53rd straight year. You were voted “most popular” for your effective collaboration with AIT and other organizations in preparing for the event. Impressive calculus by AmCham’s resourceful staff (and friends at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Osaka) helped to shepherd President Wylegala into Taiwan and through quarantine, which finished just 48 hours before the April 21st banquet. Extra credi