An explosive fire broke out at Taiwan Power Co's (Taipower) Wanlong substation in Taipei's Wenshan District on Sunday morning. 300,000 households in both Taipei and New Taipei City temporarily lost power as a result.
Taipower immediately took full responsibility for the incident and promised to distribute compensation. However, many residents were concerned by how easy it was to cripple the power grid on such a massive scale.
Taipower spokesperson Chang Ting-shu said the fire affected so many homes because it caused multiple transformers to shut down consecutively. He says power outages wouldn't have been so widespread if it had been an issue with just one of the distribution transformers.
One of the main concerns people have is how the fire, which was in just one of the substation's blocks, managed to affect two others. Chang says that insulating oil in the transformers got too hot and reacted with iron particles in the air, causing the fire.
Taipower is continuing to investigate the case, but it may be a while before it can earn the people's trust back.