The problem began at 11:31 p.m. on July 29, and within three minutes 153 power plants and substations in the Taipower network had shut down, including every power plant from Chiayi northwards. The result was the island's worst power outage of the last 50 years.

Two hours after the blackout began Premier Vincent Siew arrived at Taipower headquarters to personally take charge of the situation, ordering the Ministry of National Defence to closely monitor the mainland for signs of military activity, and the Ministry of the Interior to mobilize police patrols as a precaution against attempts by criminals to exploit the blackout.

Fortunately there were no serious disturbances and the night passed without further event. But in addition to being an inconvenience for the public, the blackout caused substantial financial losses.

According to estimates by the Council of Agriculture, the blackout was responsible for losses of NT$5.87 million in the agricultural sector. And figures released by the Industrial Development Bureau on July 31 recorded total losses of over NT$4 billion among different sectors of industry, both in and out of industrial parks. The one consolation was that Taiwan's steel and petrochemical industries, which operate around the clock and cannot afford to shut down, are concentrated in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung region, where the lights stayed on. Otherwise the financial losses would have been far greater.

It turned out that the blackout was caused by the collapse, due to a landslip, of an electricity pylon near Tsochen in Tainan, thus severing the transmission of power from the south of Taiwan to the north.

Commenting on this occurrence in a newspaper article, Professor Chang Shih-chiao of National Taiwan University's geography department wrote that if power supply for well over half the island relies on a single pylon, the design of Taiwan's energy network is clearly flawed, as are the policies under which it is managed.

Northern Taiwan accounts for 45% of the island's power consumption yet supplies only 26% of the island's electricity, with power transmission from the south making up the difference.

Taipower president J.H. Kuo acknowledged that the company has in the past paid more attention to the development of power supply than to electricity transmission and distribution. Since becoming president Kuo has been concerned about problems in the distribution network and has been pushing for a rapid completion of improvements to the system, but the task has been fraught with difficulties. In recent years there has been a burgeoning of environmental consciousness among the public, and every plan for the construction of new power stations, substations and high-tension pylons has met with strenuous opposition.

For example, work on the No. 3 south-north high-tension power line has been in progress for 10 years, but the project is still only 70% complete. Taipower says that with approval from Taichung County government, the Lungchi-Chungliao-Lungtan power line should be ready next May, so easing the crunch in south-north power transmission.

According to Taipower chairman S.C. Hsi, there can be no guarantee against the possibility of island-wide power-cuts until power supply is balanced among the different regions. Hsi points out that with the scheduled completion by 2005 of the Changsheng, Hsintao, Tatan and Hoping power plants, along with the second generating unit of the No. 4 nuclear plant, power supply in northern Taiwan is predicted to rise to 9.5 million Watts, thus balancing power supply and demand in the north and eliminating the risk of an island-wide power cut.

Responding to Taipower's assertion that the only way to balance the island's power supply is by completing construction of the nuclear and other power plants, Hsu Kuang-jung, academic committee convenor with the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, says that the blackout has exposed the inadequacy of nuclear power plants in terms of their readiness for contingencies. Hydroelectric and thermal power plants were able to resume operation soon after the blackout began, whereas the nuclear plants had to wait until safety checks could be conducted by the Atomic Energy Council. So the question is: Does Taiwan really need another nuclear power plant?

Hsing Yu-cheng, assistant researcher at the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, believes that the building of more high-tension lines and power plants is a case of too little too late, and is not the way to conclusively solve the problem. Hsing proposes that Taipower install fuel-cell power units at every departmental office building, hospital, rapid transit station, industrial park and military base. Using an electrochemical reaction fueled by natural gas, such cells generate electricity at twice the rate of traditional power plants without causing air pollution. In other words: environmentally friendly green energy.

The blackout triggered renewed debate between Taipower and the public about long-term electricity policy. Taipower at first refused national compensation for immediate losses caused by the outage on the grounds that this was "a natural disaster that could not be averted." Taipower executives said that nowhere in the world do power station operators have to pay compensation for power cuts, and pointed out that contracts between Taipower and industry clearly stipulate that it is up to companies to install their own generators or uninterruptible power supply.

Under pressure from all sides, Taipower agreed to a 10% cut in July electricity bills for all customers north of Chiayi, a move which the company estimates will cost it at least NT$3 billion in lost revenue. But for high-tech industries, this will cover just a tiny portion of their individual losses. It seems that what everyone really wants is the assurance that there will be no repeat of "Taiwan's darkest night."

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The worst power cut in Taiwan's history pitched much of the island into total blackness, and exposed inadequacies in the power network which need to be dealt with as soon as possible. (photo by Cheng Lu-chung)