Lee Chih-kung (李世光, second right)

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) has tendered his verbal resignation, which was approved by Premier Lin Chuan (林全), the Executive Yuan confirmed Tuesday.

Lee will deliver his formal letter of resignation on Wednesday, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said after a press conference held to explain the details of a nationwide power outage earlier that day.

An operation technical error in Tatan Power Plant in Taoyuan's Guanyin District at 4:52 p.m. caused six generators to stop working, affecting the supply of 4 million kilowatts of electricity. The plant is Taiwan's biggest natural gas power plant.

Power outage hit greater Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Miaoli, Nantou and Chiayi and other counties around 5 p.m. Tuesday, affecting 6.68 million households.