Taiwan blames human error during test for islandwide power cut

People pay for their purchases using the light from their phone while experiencing a blackout due to an outage at a power plant, at a shop in Taipei, Taiwan, May 13, 2021. - Reuters

TAIPEI (Reuters): Taiwan's state-owned electricity monopoly Taipower on Friday (May 14) blamed human error during a test for a power cut that affected some 4 million homes the day before, and said it would offer discounts worth almost US$18 million to affected customers.

The rolling blackouts went on for around five hours before normal supplies were resumed early evening, briefly affecting the world's biggest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd.