Parts of Taiwan Go Dark After Plant Failure Triggers Outage

  • TSMC says no major impact, while ASE assesses situation
  • The sudden outage hit parts of world’s chipmaking base

Buildings on the skyline in Taipei.

Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg
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Major cities across Taiwan, home to some of the world’s biggest chip industry players, were hit by a widespread power outage Thursday after a power station in the southern city of Kaohsiung suddenly went offline.

The outage hit parts of Taipei and Kaohsiung as well as Tainan, home to a science park housing facilities of companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Innolux Corp., according to the Taipei-based Apple Daily newspaper. Taipower, the nation’s major provider of electricity, said power supply returned to normal at 8:00 p.m. local time.