President Tsai Ing-wen has apologized for a blackout that affected some 660,000 households Monday evening. The power went out for the second time in a week, after a generator failed at the Hsingta Power Plant in Kaohsiung. In a post on Facebook, President Tsai said the two outages were “difficult to accept.” She pledged to make the changes needed to ensure a steady electricity supply.

Around 8 o’clock Monday evening, Nanjichang Night Market was plunged into darkness, by yet another emergency blackout that caught many people off guard.

Even the stoplights went black, and traffic had to rely on police officers for direction. People trying to toss out their trash found themselves groping in the dark.

Yang Wei-fu
Taipower chairman
In the short space of a few days, we have had to launch two rolling blackouts. I want to express my deepest apologies to all of our customers.

On Monday afternoon, a boiler malfunction at Hsingta Power Plant prompted its No. 1 generator to shut down. Although repairs were completed in short order, it took six hours to get the coal-fired unit back up to full capacity. Due to the shortage on the grid, Taipower cut power to some 660,000 customers nationwide for 50 minutes. The customers affected were in the two power grid groups, C and D, which were also hit by last week’s power outage.

Chang Ting-shu
Taipower spokesman
For the year 2021, C and D are designated as the first groups to be affected, and so we limited the supply for C and D. There’s room to review this system in the future.

It was the second blackout in a single week, and once again, the president came forward with an apology.

Tsai Ing-wen
President
Like the Taiwanese public, I too find this hard to accept. I want to apologize to you all. But the more important thing is that there may be human factors at play behind these two accidents. The two accidents remind us of the need to reexamine and review our electricity supply plan.

President Tsai pledged a comprehensive assessment of Taiwan’s electricity plan, in order to prevent blackouts from becoming the new normal.