Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen offered a public apology on Friday for the widespread outage that left more than five million people without electricity, vowing to scrutinize infrastructure and improve grid reliability.
Tsai said that the mass power outage was the result of human negligence and expressed her apologies for the inconvenience caused to the public.
The Taiwanese president further stated that Premier Su Tseng-chang has directed the Ministry of Economic Affairs to conduct an investigation and submit a full report on the incident within three days.
“We must improve the goal of grid decentralization and resilience, conduct a thorough review of the existing grid design, and speed up the necessary re-planning and adjustment,” she said, urging the Economic Affairs Ministry to review personnel training and safe operation of power plants.
Those who have suffered losses as a result of the outages will receive a 5 percent to 10 percent discount on their energy bills as compensation, and industrial customers will also receive compensation based on the degree of the damage, the report stated.
The power outages came as former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Taipei on Wednesday evening for a four-day visit to the country where he was set to meet with Tsai. The live-streaming of their meeting was temporarily canceled an hour before the meeting began due to the power outage.
“Secretary Pompeo is not only a long-term supporter of Taiwan’s international participation; he has also facilitated multiple breakthroughs in Taiwan–U.S. relations,” Tsai remarked.
Taiwan experienced two major power outages in May 2021, during which the self-governed island was afflicted by drought, resulting in an increase in electrical use.
