Millions lose power after Taiwan power plant failure

An equipment failure caused an outage at a power plant in southern Taiwan yesterday, triggering rolling blackouts across the island affecting millions of people.

The outage in Kaohsiung trapped at least one person in an elevator and disrupted a daily briefing being given by government officials on the island’s pandemic situation.

Taipower, the government-run electric company, launched the rolling blackouts at 3 p.m. and said emergency repairs were underway.

The outages affected 8.46 million households, Taipower said.

In Yilan county, one person was trapped in an elevator, the government-backed Central News Agency said. In Hsinchu, 150,000 households lost power. In the southern city of Tainan, 14 districts were affected.

President Tsai Ing-wen issued a statement saying that “everyone can rest assured” and that the government was handling the situation.

She said an investigation would be conducted into the cause of the outage.