Taiwan probes massive power cut that affects millions of households, businesses

Taiwan said on Aug. 16 it was investigating a massive power blackout that hit businesses and residential homes, affecting close to seven million households on the heavily industrialized island amid sweltering heat.

President Tsai Ing-wen apologized for the crisis which left millions of homes without power and hit offices and factories on the island of nearly 24 million people late on Aug. 15.

The worst appeared to be over by Aug. 16, with power fully restored and little impact on Taiwan's leading technology manufacturers.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to Apple Inc, said its operations were not affected, as did electronics manufacturer Pegatron Corp.

ChipMOS Technologies Inc said the outage did not have a big impact on its operations. Its shares fell 2 percent in early trade but pared losses later to 1 percent, lagging a flat broader market. 

Premier Lin Chuan promised to seek an external review of the island's power supply network, and take questions in person at the legislature.  

Officials said a task force would be set up to investigate the cause of the outage. 

"The strength and stability of Taiwan's power grid requires a large-scale inspection, and also examination by outside investigators," government spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung said at a press conference.

Residents complained as temperatures hovered around 32 degrees Celsius (89.6F), while the blackout caused havoc as restaurants and small businesses were left without power, traffic lights stopped working and elevators stalled. 

The blackout was caused by "structural problems" and human error involving the replacement of equipment, which ultimately affected the...