7 ms·

Taiwan hit by widespread power outages

62 points by fomine3 5y ago

NotAWorkNick 5y ago
According to [0], Taiwan’s Minister of Economics Affairs offered to resign over the incident, which was accepted by Premier Lin Chuan Wow. That's some major level of accepting full responsibility given that "The power outage was caused by a human technical error at state-owned gas supplier CPC Corp that affected the operations of a state-owned Taiwan Power Co power plant in northwestern Taoyuan, the two companies said at a news conference on Tuesday evening." [0] https://time.com/4902500/taiwan-power-cut/ https://time.com/4902500/taiwan-power-cut/ (Note: I had to use reader mode for the link to fully show with JS disabled)
- xyzzy21 5y ago
  The culture of Taiwan is heavily influenced by Japan as it was a colony of Japan for 50 years. Most of the major infrastructure originated during the Japanese colonial period. So Japanese culture is fairly well adopted. It's EVA that has a "Hello Kitty" plane, not any Japanese carrier. I know a lot of Taiwanese who grew up speaking Mandarin AND Japanese in the home and who are still fluent in Japanese. Also Taiwan fought WW2 on the side of the Japanese and was bombed by US forces.
  - cafard 5y ago
    "Also Taiwan fought WW2 on the side of the Japanese and was bombed by US forces." Isn't that a little like saying that the Philippines fought WW2 on the side of the US? No doubt they found the US more congenial than they did the Japanese, but they didn't have much choice in the matter.
HWR_14 5y ago
Is there a non-paywalled link?
- frankacter 5y ago
  here you go: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202203030007 https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202203030007 tl;dr it was a result of a malfunction in one of the plants that caused a cascading issue. You can see the impact of reduced usage (in comparison to the day prior) here: https://i.imgur.com/8gbziHJ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/8gbziHJ.jpg Here is a video from the repair crew inspecting the unit: https://i.imgur.com/aI1tmuf.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/aI1tmuf.mp4
slandermanwen 5y ago
Yep is happening again...the government did not upgrade the power line. Very incompetent.
barbazoo 5y ago
I was worried they were being annexed when I read the headline.
- xiphias2 5y ago
  It will happen in the next 5 years anyways, so no need to be worried...we just don't know the timing.
  - eru 5y ago
    Not sure. Status quo is usually pretty powerful.
  - sofixa 5y ago
    There's plenty of reason to be worried about a war in Taiwan. Heavy casualties, potential for nuclear escalation, the sanctions, and the loss of manufacturing and trade would be felt throughout the world heavily ( unlike Russia where it's mostly the Russians feeling them). Hopefully the Chinese government is paying attention to Ukraine and relearning a lesson that they should have learned while studying the Napoleonic wars - a dedicated population is impossible to subdue from an invader. And hopefully they do realise, they will be an invader regardless of the history between the two entities.
    - tomp 5y ago
      China can just starve Taiwan.
      - djohnston 5y ago
        That would likely lead to open war with the US on the limit of free navigation.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - sofixa 5y ago
        A naval blockade in disputed waters the US is saying ( but not guaranteeing) they'll protect can easily escalate. But it's true that it wouldn't result in a direct bloodbath outright.
chermanowicz 5y ago
"malfunction"
- riskneutral 5y ago
  Chinese government flexing it cyber warfare capabilities while former U.S. Secretary of State is visiting the island. Just a preview for Taiwan and Eastern Europe.
graderjs 5y ago
I was in Taipei and didn't notice it. It made big news tho.
maoeurk 5y ago
Just an anecdote but I live in Taiwan (Taipei proper) and haven't noticed or been affected by any power issues today
- CodeGlitch 5y ago
  Yes but we won't hear from people who have lost power :) Glad you're not affected.
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    They both restored power to many of the affected and many affected were in rolling blackouts. So it's possible people in either group could be posting.
- frankacter 5y ago
  Agreed. I'm also in Taipei (Shilin) and equally no power issues. The cascading outage resulted in less than a 25% overall outage across the island and for most of those impacted lasted less than 2 hours. That said, some areas, parts of Miaoli for example, are still without power.

62 points by fomine3 5y ago

According to [0], Taiwan’s Minister of Economics Affairs offered to resign over the incident, which was accepted by Premier Lin Chuan Wow. That's some major level of accepting full responsibility given that "The power outage was caused by a human technical error at state-owned gas supplier CPC Corp that affected the operations of a state-owned Taiwan Power Co power plant in northwestern Taoyuan, the two companies said at a news conference on Tuesday evening." [0] https://time.com/4902500/taiwan-power-cut/ https://time.com/4902500/taiwan-power-cut/ (Note: I had to use reader mode for the link to fully show with JS disabled)

xyzzy21 5y ago
The culture of Taiwan is heavily influenced by Japan as it was a colony of Japan for 50 years. Most of the major infrastructure originated during the Japanese colonial period. So Japanese culture is fairly well adopted. It's EVA that has a "Hello Kitty" plane, not any Japanese carrier. I know a lot of Taiwanese who grew up speaking Mandarin AND Japanese in the home and who are still fluent in Japanese. Also Taiwan fought WW2 on the side of the Japanese and was bombed by US forces.
- cafard 5y ago
  "Also Taiwan fought WW2 on the side of the Japanese and was bombed by US forces." Isn't that a little like saying that the Philippines fought WW2 on the side of the US? No doubt they found the US more congenial than they did the Japanese, but they didn't have much choice in the matter.

HWR_14 5y ago

Is there a non-paywalled link?

frankacter 5y ago
here you go: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202203030007 https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202203030007 tl;dr it was a result of a malfunction in one of the plants that caused a cascading issue. You can see the impact of reduced usage (in comparison to the day prior) here: https://i.imgur.com/8gbziHJ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/8gbziHJ.jpg Here is a video from the repair crew inspecting the unit: https://i.imgur.com/aI1tmuf.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/aI1tmuf.mp4

slandermanwen 5y ago

Yep is happening again...the government did not upgrade the power line. Very incompetent.

barbazoo 5y ago

I was worried they were being annexed when I read the headline.

xiphias2 5y ago
It will happen in the next 5 years anyways, so no need to be worried...we just don't know the timing.
- eru 5y ago
  Not sure. Status quo is usually pretty powerful.
- sofixa 5y ago
  There's plenty of reason to be worried about a war in Taiwan. Heavy casualties, potential for nuclear escalation, the sanctions, and the loss of manufacturing and trade would be felt throughout the world heavily ( unlike Russia where it's mostly the Russians feeling them). Hopefully the Chinese government is paying attention to Ukraine and relearning a lesson that they should have learned while studying the Napoleonic wars - a dedicated population is impossible to subdue from an invader. And hopefully they do realise, they will be an invader regardless of the history between the two entities.
  - tomp 5y ago
    China can just starve Taiwan.
    - djohnston 5y ago
      That would likely lead to open war with the US on the limit of free navigation.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - sofixa 5y ago
      A naval blockade in disputed waters the US is saying ( but not guaranteeing) they'll protect can easily escalate. But it's true that it wouldn't result in a direct bloodbath outright.

chermanowicz 5y ago

"malfunction"

riskneutral 5y ago
Chinese government flexing it cyber warfare capabilities while former U.S. Secretary of State is visiting the island. Just a preview for Taiwan and Eastern Europe.

graderjs 5y ago

I was in Taipei and didn't notice it. It made big news tho.

maoeurk 5y ago

Just an anecdote but I live in Taiwan (Taipei proper) and haven't noticed or been affected by any power issues today

CodeGlitch 5y ago
Yes but we won't hear from people who have lost power :) Glad you're not affected.
- HWR_14 5y ago
  They both restored power to many of the affected and many affected were in rolling blackouts. So it's possible people in either group could be posting.
frankacter 5y ago
Agreed. I'm also in Taipei (Shilin) and equally no power issues. The cascading outage resulted in less than a 25% overall outage across the island and for most of those impacted lasted less than 2 hours. That said, some areas, parts of Miaoli for example, are still without power.