Mass outage caused by human error

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Cabinet accepted the resignation of Economics

Minister Lee Chih-kung (李世光) Tuesday evening after a massive power outage which knocked out traffic lights, trapped people in elevators and darkened shopping malls and offices across the nation.

The incident was reportedly caused by human error, with the supply of gas to the Datan Power Station in Taoyuan City being interrupted for two minutes just before 5 p.m.

After appearing at a news conference apologizing to the public, Lee handed in his resignation to Premier Lin Chuan (林全) and the latter accepted it, a Cabinet spokesman announced.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/15
By: Sophia Yeh, Lu Hsin-hui and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) Recent frequent incidents in which Chinese military aircraft

have flown close to Taiwan indicate that Beijing is preparing for a “partial, limited and non-nuclear war” in the Taiwan Strait, a retired Taiwanese vice admiral said Tuesday.

Kung Chia-cheng (龔家政), former head of the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, said at an event marking the 72nd anniversary of the end of World War II that the recent Chinese military maneuvers show that China is preparing for a scenario of war in the Taiwan Strait.

Some media reports have described the incidents as a signal from China to the United States and Japan, or part of China’s regular training, Kung noted.
[FULL  STORY]

THE BURDEN OF RESPONSIBILITY:Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung verbally resigned after 6.68 million electricity users nationwide were forced onto power rationing

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 16, 2017
By: Lisa Wang / Staff reporter

A natural gas supply disruption to a major power plant in Taoyuan’s Datan

Township (大潭) yesterday caused blackouts throughout the nation and subsequent power rationing, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) resigned from his position to shoulder responsibility.

The Cabinet accepted Lee’s oral resignation immediately.

About 6.68 million users, half of the nation’s 13 million users, faced power rationing from 6pm to 9pm last night as state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) was striving to restore power generation from the plant, Taipower chairman Chu Wen-chen (朱文成) told a media briefing.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 15, 2017
By: The China Post

Six generators at a Taoyuan power plant went down at 4:51 p.m., causing power outages nationwide.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• The economics minister has resigned over the energy crisis
• Power rationing was in place from 6 p.m. to 9:40 p.m., affecting 6.68 million households
• The six offline generators were to be back online at midnight at the earliest

AS IT HAPPENED

10:25 p.m.: This concludes our live coverage of the energy crisis. It was a dramatic day that started with a minor problem at a Hualien power plant. Before it finished, millions of homes had experienced power outages and the economic affairs minister had stepped down.

And that was only the start; the fallout will be significant both in terms of politics and energy policy. There will no doubt be calls for a rethink or at least a delay on the phase-out of nuclear power, and rumors of a Cabinet reshuffle are inevitable.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-14

The power shortage crisis has been eased after the damaged Hoping Power Plant

resumed operations. That’s the word from Vice Economics Minister Yang Wei-fuu on Monday.

The plant’s transmission tower was damaged by storms at the end of July, prompting the government to shut down air conditioning at government offices for two hours each afternoon until last Thursday. That was amid some of the highest temperatures of the year.

Yang said now that the two generators at the power plant are back online and running at full capacity, a red- light alert is not likely.    [FULL  STORY]

Study suggests you should say goodbye to braised pork and tea eggs to avoid cancer

Taiwan News
Date: 017/08/14
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A study by a researcher at Fu Jen Catholic University has

found that the Taiwanese old standbys — aged braised pork, tea eggs, and pork broth — could be carcinogenic, especially after cooked for more than three hours.

“The idea that the longer pork is braised in broth, the better, is a mistaken notion,” said Chen Bing-huei (陳炳輝), a professor at Fu Jen Catholic University’s Department of Food Science, who found in study that reheating pork broth containing meat, soy sauce, sugar and water produces carcinogenic cholesterol oxidation products (COPs), published in a United Daily News report on Monday.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/14
By: Evelyn Kao CNA staff writer

Concerns over the availability of electricity in Taiwan in the future and recently dwindling power reserves caused by equipment breakdowns and intense heat have sparked debate over whether the country should reconsider its policy on nuclear power.

Taiwan has three aging nuclear power plants with a total of six reactors, three of which are currently inactive, and a fourth plant that is not far from being operational but was mothballed in 2014 due to anti-nuclear protests.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government now in power wants to turn Taiwan into a “nuclear-power free” homeland by 2025 by decommissioning the six reactors by then and replacing their output with renewable energy or other alternatives.    [FULL  STORY]

FAN BASE:Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je has an approval rating of 68.5 percent nationwide, the poll found, with younger and higher-educated people more likely to support him

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 15, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating has dropped to below 30 percent,

the lowest of her presidency, while Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has an approval rating of about 70 percent nationwide, one of the highest for any politician in the nation’s history, according to a monthly poll by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation released yesterday.

Tsai’s approval rating has fallen to 29.8 percent, the lowest since the foundation began tracking her popularity in May last year, with 50 percent of respondents saying they are unsatisfied with the way she leads the government, the third-highest dissatisfaction rate since she took office.

The approval rating of Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) Cabinet was 28.7 percent, with 59.7 percent of respondents dissatisfied with the Executive Yuan’s performance.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 14, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The mercury in Taipei topped 36 degrees Celsius for the 10th

day in a row Monday, making it the longest streak in the city on record.
Daytime temperatures have passed 36 C every day since Aug. 5, hitting a high today of 38.2 C, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

This surpassed the nine-day record set from July 8-16 in 2012 to become the lengthiest Taipei hot spell in the 120 years since the Taipei weather station began making records.

There is a chance the record hot spell will continue, said the CWB, which is forecasting more hot days to come this week.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-13

The Presidential Office has called on opponents of the government’s pension reform

plan to avoid disrupting events during the Universiade Games.

The Tsai Ing-wen administration has made reforming Taiwan’s deficit-ridden pension system a priority. However, plans to reform the system have faced strong opposition, especially from retired teachers, civil servants and military personnel. These are the groups who have most benefited from generous pension provisions until now and who stand to be most affected by the reforms.

There have been rumors of a planned protest against pension reform during the opening ceremony of the Universiade Games, the world games for university athletes. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place in Taipei on August 19, with President Tsai Ing-wen set to attend. According to the rumors, some opponents of pension reform have purchased tickets to the ceremony and plan to cause a disruption.    [FULL  STORY]