The rush-hour commute in major cities in Taiwan was thrown into chaos as sirens filled the air Thursday morning, local media reported. Five million households are affected.
The outage started after 9 a.m., with cities such as capital Taipei, Hsinchu, and Kaohsiung in the south affected.
Taiwan Power Company wrote in a Facebook post that the incident was caused by a malfunctioning power station in Kaohsiung. The post said that the malfunction caused a nearby substation to trip, causing major power outages in Taiwan's south, which spread to the island's central and northern regions.
It is expected that normal power supply will be available before noon, and power supply will be resumed in the south at noon, according to the post.
Taiwan's Liberty Times reported that five million households are affected. There were pictures and updates of the power going out. Fire engines were dispatched to save people trapped in elevators, traffic lights went dark, and cars piled up at intersection.
The former Secretary of State is in Taiwan. He is expected to meet the President of Taiwan on Thursday. China claims self-governing Taiwan as part of its territory. These claims have been rejected by Tsai.
According to a Taiwan News report, the chairperson of Taiwan Power Company said that the company suffers from cyberattacks almost every day. A pro-independence legislator said Taiwan needs sound protection for key energy facilities so that it can avoid incidents such as the massive blackouts in Ukraine caused by hacking, according to the report.
A planned live broadcast of the meeting will be canceled, according to a post on the media team's Facebook page.
The last major power outage in Taiwan was in 2021. Four million households were affected by that incident.
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