A malfunction at Tatan Power Plant put out the lights in nearly 7 million homes in Taiwan on Tuesday.
▲圖／翻攝自中國郵報
In a foreboding prelude to the 2017 Universiade, the blackout also briefly affected three of the big event's venues: a basketball gym in Songshan, a sports center in New Taipei and an athletics field in Taipei, where a rehearsal for the opening ceremony was interrupted
Could this summer's unprecedentedly tight power supply leave athletes in the dark during the 19-day sporting event?
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said that the main Universiade venues had double-loop power supplies, and that all the venues had diesel generators that could power the site in the event of a blackout.
"Even if the power were out completely, there would be nothing to fear because we have diesel generators. The reason that the electricity was out for 30 minutes (on Tuesday) was because staff had not been on-site to operate the generator," Ko said.
"Of course, our hope is that Taiwan Power Company doesn't see a power outage."
The diesel generators were eventually powered up Tuesday, alarming one resident who saw a billowing cloud of smoke coming from an athletics field.
Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee spokesman Yang Ching-tang (楊景棠) later told local media that smoke was a normal byproduct of diesel-powered electricity generators and that there was no cause for concern.
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