Friday July 30, 1999 08:53 AM

Taiwan Suffers Blackout, Some Fear China Link

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's worst power blackout stretched into the morning today, with police rushing to rescue people trapped in elevators and millions of residents enduring what the official news agency described as a ``dark, dangerous and rumor-ridden night.''

When a short circuit triggered an air-raid siren in the southern city of Tainan, many jittery citizens called police to ask if fighter jets have arrived from mainland China to attack the island, the United Evening News reported.

The blackout occurred when a utility tower collapsed in Tainan on Thursday night, causing a domino effect that cut power to 7 million households around the island, the state-run Taiwan Power Company said. Electricity was expected to be restored throughout the island by late today.

Officials said the outage was not caused by sabotage and was unrelated to recent tensions with China. But newspapers said even Taiwan's military suspected foul play at first and was relieved that an inspection of the island's three nuclear power plants found no sign of attack.

Tensions between Taiwan and China have hit a high point, following Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's comments this month that the two sides should deal with each other on a ``state-to-state'' basis. Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province that should be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

In the chaos of the blackout, at least five trains were stalled for a few hours. Police said they rescued 113 people from elevators around the island. There were 28 small fires, most caused by candles, but they only caused minor injuries, police said.

``Taiwanese had a dark, dangerous and rumor-ridden night,'' the state-run Central News Agency said, noting that speculated causes ranged from a Chinese attack to interference by aliens.

The blackout did tremendous industrial damage. Officials at a high-tech industrial park in the northern city of Hsinchu said the blackout caused an estimated $62 million worth of damage to its factories manufacturing computer chips, optical electronics and other items.

No major public disturbances were reported, although the blackout caused confusion on roads left without traffic lights. By early today, tired police officers were seen directing traffic at many intersections in Taipei.

Defense Ministry spokesman Kung Fan-ting told Eastern TV that the blackout did not affect Taiwan's combat readiness because the military was prepared to cope with such emergencies.

He said it was a simple electrical outage and urged the public not to ``surmise nor make unnecessary associations.''

But speculation was only natural.

``The first thing that came to my mind was: Could this be China?'' said secretary Betty Liu.

By ANNIE HUANG, Associated Press Writer

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), July 30, 1999

Answers

SNIP_____

The blackout did tremendous industrial damage. Officials at a high-tech industrial park in the northern city of Hsinchu said the blackout caused an estimated $62 million worth of damage to its factories manufacturing computer chips, optical electronics and other items.

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Hsinchu city is where TSMC, UMC, and many other Semiconductor manufacturs are based, I wonder if this will effect US corporations that get their chips from these companies? This could really effect the US economy big time. All of the process lines will have to be requalified, base vaccuums restored, systems cleaned.

This is not a good omen.

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), July 30, 1999.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990729/brv.html

Thursday July 29, 9:10 pm Eastern Time

Taiwan blackouts causes more than T$2 bln damage

TAIPEI, July 30 (Reuters) - An island-wide blackout has cost Taiwan more than T$2 billion in industry damage, the state-run Central News Agency said on Friday.

The outage, which began late on Thursday and lasted for more than three hours, was the worst in decades, hitting key industries.

Initial damage to semiconductor and electronics makers in the northern Hsinchu Science Park alone was estimated at more than T$2 billion, the news agency said.

It said most microchip wafer plants, microchip testing and packaging plants, and liquid crystal display plants have been affected.

Industries across the island scrambled to limit production losses, but the damage was expected to be extensive -- especially in the electronics sectors, which have been running round-the-clock at full capacity.

Though the biggest high-technology firms have emergency power supplies, far less extensive power outages in recent years have caused losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

(US$=T$32.2)

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), July 30, 1999.

What's weird about all this hype is that typhoons regularly take out the power over wide chunks of the island every year.

-- Ct Vronsky (vronsky@anna.com), July 30, 1999.

OK, let me say it before the pollys do:

1) This was not caused by a Y2K problem, nor for that matter even a computer related problem, so it is irrelevant.

2) It happened in a FOREIGN COUNTRY, so who cares? Here in the good ol' U.S. of A. such things could never happen.

3) Use of words such as "domino effect" indicate a defective meme.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), July 30, 1999.

Links:

Friday July 30 9:00 AM ET ...Blackout in Taiwan Lingers (AP)

Friday July 30, 7:39 am Eastern Time...Power slowly returns after Taiwan blackout (Reuters) TAIPEI, July 30 (Reuters) - Parts of Taiwan continued to suffer periodic brownouts on Friday as the state-run utility laboured to bring the island's electricity grid back up to full power after its worst blackout in history.

Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) rationed electricity as it worked to fully restore the power supply after the three-hour blackout late on Thursday which caused disruptions to some industries.

``We do not expect power supplies to return to normal until midnight,'' a Taipower official said. [so.. its NOT a three-hour blackout?]

Taipower said the outage may have been caused by the collapse of a high-pressure electricity tower in southern Taiwan due to a landslide, which triggered a chain reaction through the power grid.

There has been no comprehensive official estimate of financial damage since a morning report that firms in the Hsinchu Science Park, heart of Taiwan's key electronics industry, suffered losses of T$2 billion ($62 million).

However, Taiwan's two top makers of computer chips told Reuters they suffered only minimal disruptions and that their output was unaffected. [note this change from the earlier story]

There were numerous reports of people, including even Premier Vincent Siew and other officials, getting trapped in elevators as the power grid remained unstable in the morning.

One hospital worker died after stepping into an elevator that plunged to the ground. [I thought elevators didn't do that.. and planes won't fall from the sky... they PROMISED!] Several car crashes also were reported, blamed on confusion as traffic signals went out.

Many restaurants and food suppliers were forced to throw out food spoiled when refrigeration systems shut off but the island's top food company, Uni-President Enterprises , said there would be no long-term impact on the industry.

Taipower said it had managed to bring power output back up to 16.8 million kilowatts by 3:00 p.m. (0700 GMT), restoring electricity to most of the island.

Normal daytime summer demand, which rises as air conditioners are switched on to combat hot and humid weather, is around 18 million kilowatts.

Officials said rationing would be lifted later in the evening when demand drops to around 15 million kilowatts and the island's three nuclear power plants are expected to be back up.

The blackout laid bare the precarious situation Taiwan industry has been in since environmental protests delayed a government plan to build a fourth nuclear power plant outside Taipei for several years. It is now set for completion in 2002.

``Power rationing is needed because the six generators in the island's three nuclear power plants, which account for a quarter of Taiwan's power supply, were still unable to supply electricity,'' a Taipower official said. [huh? Is this saying that the nuclear plants back-up generators didn't work?]

The three nuclear power stations were shut down along with other conventional-powered plants late on Thursday, a normal procedure when the island-wide power grid is incapacitated.

The massive blackout also raised fears that rival China now knew the island's weakness.

``This time Taipower has revealed a major state secret -- it's so easy to paralyse Taiwan,'' the China Times Express newspaper said in a commentary.

But authorities were quick to rule out any link to the tense dispute with Communist China over Taiwan's political status that has provoked threats by Beijing to invade the island.

``Taipower has explained the cause of the island-wide blackout to the public and the defence ministry urges our countrymen not to make excessive imagination or speculation,'' the defence ministry said in a statement.

The statement added that there was no sign of ``abnormal mobilisation'' by communist forces on the mainland.

Tensions have risen since Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui said on July 9 that Taipei-Beijing relations must be conducted on a basis of ``state to state'' equality.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), July 30, 1999.

Speaking of blackout.. closer to home.. has this already been posted?

Con Ed in more hot water (ABC NewsWire) Con Ed is once again at the center of controversy. This time, some 65 Washington Heights merchants who suffered losses during the July sixth blackout are suing the utility. The business owners want Con Edison to cough up five-Million dollars in damages. It is expected that another 200 merchants may join in the action by the time it reaches the Manhattan Civil Court in August. The plaintiffs are citing breach of contract, gross negligence and discrimination. - Jul 28 4:11 AM EDT

Market owners sue Con Ed for $14.5 mlllion (Reuters) NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) - The owners of more than 60 neighborhood markets in Manhattan filed a $14.5 million lawsuit on Tuesday against utility Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED - news ) for its role in failing to provide electricity during a recent heat-related blackout. - Jul 27 9:02 PM EDT

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), July 30, 1999.

Hey, all ConEd has to do is say that the failure was "Y2K related", and they have INSTANT protection under Klinton's new law....

(Or would that action send a message that "shouldn't be sent?"

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), July 30, 1999.

``Taiwanese had a dark, dangerous and rumor-ridden night...''

The blackout did tremendous industrial damage.

Whatever the cause... the effect is worth noting in a Y2K context.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), July 30, 1999.

Another power company sued for blackout:

San Francisco seeks $1.75 mln from PG&E for outage (Reuters) SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 (Reuters) - San Francisco officials want Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to pay $1. - Jul 30 6:15 PM EDT

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), July 30, 1999.

In a Court of Law I'd imagine that this "Precedent" WOULD have been Compelling, If Congress and Clinton had not Passed anti-Y2K Lawsuit Legislation.

I wonder under the Terms of the Legislation, what would be considered as "Gross Negligence" and legal cause to file suit?

Regardless, people will be SOL.

Father

-- Thomas G. Hale (hale.tg@att.net), July 31, 1999.

See also...

Electricity Power Out--A Dead Squirrel Teaches Y2K Lessons In Fragility & Connectedness

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 0012gP

Or...

Power OUT In San Francisco

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000IIh

Lessons... lessons. Choices... choices.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), July 31, 1999.

From your article Linda...

"Workers adjusting several 115-kilovolt lines turned power on without proper grounding. That sparked a domino effect, which shut down two San Francisco substations and pulled the plug on most of the city and its southern suburbs."

A 'domino effect.'

Sounds like a Y2K book title... after 2001.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), July 31, 1999.