CNA file photo

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) A power outage that occurred almost nationwide on Tuesday did not affect operations at Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), where many of Taiwan's top high-tech manufacturers are located, the park administration said, denying news reports of disruptions there.

In a statement, the park administration said the sudden power cut, which occurred at 4:52 p.m., did not extend to HSP.

The power outage was caused by a technical error at Tatan Power Plant in Taoyuan, blacking out the municipalities of Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Miaoli, Nantou and Chiayi, according to Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower).

However, no loss of power occurred at HSP, where huge energy consuming plants such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and its smaller rival United Microelectronics Corp. are located, the park administration said.

An unstable power supply has been cited by many high-tech giants as one of their biggest worries in Taiwan, although the government has repeatedly tried to give the assurance of a stable supply.

On Tuesday, six generators tripped out at Tatan Power Plant, the largest natural gas power station in the country, with a capacity of 4 million kilowatts.

Taipower said the problem was due to a technical error and that it had taken emergency measures to deal with it. However, as of 8:30 p.m. there were still power disruptions in Taipei and many other areas of the country. 

(By Jackson Chang, Ku Chuan and Frances Huang)
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