On December 12, 2021, a transformer fire in a Taipei substation generated heavy smoke, affecting the power supply system and tripped a busbar, and caused power outages in 305,000 households in Taipei City and New Taipei City. Today’s media reporting pointed out that the review report has been delivered to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and is evasive in many places. Taipower stated on the 3rd of January that because accident-related inspections have not been completed and a third party inspection is still pending, the cause of the accident is yet to be confirmed and has not been reported to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
According to media reports today, Taipower has sent the "1212 Power Outage Review Report" to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. After obtaining the contents of the report, it was discovered that Taipower not only missed opportunities to prevent the outage but the early warning system was ineffective due to old and outdated internal transformer monitoring standards. It is difficult to guarantee that this type of severe blackout will not happen again.
In response to this, Taipower stated in a press release on January 3rd that accident-related inspections have not been completed and inspection by a third-party is still pending, so the cause of the accident is still to be confirmed. The relevant report is only a preliminary draft prepared by Taipower and, in fact, it has not been reported to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Taipower stated, on December 29 and 30 last year, that it invited impartial third-party organizations such as the State-owned Enterprise Commission of the MOEA, the National Fire Agency of the Ministry of the Interior, the Taipei City Fire Department, the New Taipei City Fire Department, and external experts and scholars in the field power generation to confirm the point of the accident and take samples for testing to find the true cause of the outage.
Taipower pointed out that it immediately horizontally offloaded 8 transformers of the same type as those involved in the 1212 accident and completed relevant detailed inspections (including infrared temperature measurement and partial discharge testing) on December 15 last year. The analysis results of gas in oil were all normal. In the future, the analysis and sampling of gas in oil will be scheduled according to the load status of each brand by age and is scheduled to be sent to the Research Institute of Taiwan Power Company to complete inspection before the Lunar New Year and ensure operational safety. On December 22, Taipower also invited experts from various electrical plants and companies to revise the determination standard for gas analysis in transformer insulating oil with reference to international standards and experience derived from this case.
Taipower apologizes for any confusion to the people of the country caused by the unfinished documents. At the same time, it will also review the cause of the accident based on actual inspection results.
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