Report by Shuchi Giridhar
Many citizens and firms of Taiwan have reported a massive electricity blackout which occurred on 3rd March 2022.
Blackout: Since electricity is responsible for almost all our lighting at night, a blackout means an absence of electrical power, or a power outage.
It was noted that many cities across Taiwan experienced major blackouts during the morning rush hour. Officials from the Taipower company stated that the blackout was due to a malfunction at a power station. This means that something had damaged the company’s power stations to cause the outage.
The Taipower company provides electricity for the whole of Taiwan and to many offshore islands of the People’s Republic of China.
According to the citizens of Taiwan the blackout occurred at 9:00 a.m., during the rush hour. It affected the cities in the south such as the capital Taipei, Hsinchu, and Kaohsiung.
The failures seem to have occurred as Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen was to meet former US secretary of state, Mr. Mike Pompeo. This was also the day after a visit by a delegation of former US security officials. This was a trip planned by Beijing which thinks Taiwan as its territory.
According to the president’s office, an incident at a power plant in southern Kaohsiung city was the cause of the outage. This power plant is the island’s third largest coal-fired station/ power plant. The power plant produces and supplies about 14% of Taiwan’s power.
This relates to a similar incident in 2017 which was a a massive power outage that affected more than six million households. The incident was found to be caused by human tampering. Due to this, the previous economic minister resigned from his post. It is also noted that there were many blackouts during May in the year 2021. As of now the ministry is trying to find out what caused the malfunction.