According to Nikkei Asia, this blackout hit Taiwan’s two largest cities, the capital Taipei and the second largest Kaoshiung.
In a brief statement, Taiwan Power Co. said that blackouts in southern Taiwan were caused by a fault in the southern power grid system.
The subsequent power disruptions in northern and central Taiwan were caused by the initial outage’s domino effect.
The Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung experienced the problem, and the firm claims that it is the largest power plant in southern Taiwan. Tainan, in the south of Taiwan, is the centre of iPhone processor production.
It would take longer to restore power in Southern Taiwan, according to Economic Minister Wang Mei-Hua, who said, “restarting power plants need some time, too.”
It appears that power has been restored to the majority of impacted homes, but the impact of this outage on TSMC’s factory remains unknown.
Widespread Power Outages Send Taiwan Dark
Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and Kaoshiung, the country’s second largest city, both lost power (via Nikkei Asia).
As a result of the blackout, power was cut to almost 5 million homes and businesses, including TSMC’s plant in a nearby industrial park.
Briefly, Taiwan Electrical Co. reported a problem with the southern part of the country’s power grid.
As a result, much of southern Taiwan went dark, and other portions of the island experienced lesser power disruptions.
Impact on iPhone Chipmaker TSMC Unknown
A majority of TSMC’s state-of-the-art chip manufacturing facilities are located in Tainan Science Park.
Which was hit by sudden and unpredictable voltage shifts as a result of the blackout. Foxconn subsidiary Innolux and United Microelectronics both operate facilities in the area.
It was unclear as of Thursday morning how, if at all, iPhone chipmaker TSMC was impacted by the power disruptions. To date, the corporation has been mum about the specifics of its product pipeline.
The impact on iPhone production is difficult to predict because TSMC makes processors for more than just Apple.
It’s possible that iPhone chip supplies won’t be affected by the outage at all if the plant was running a production run for another customer.
Conclusion
Everyone knows that Taiwan is where most of the world’s semiconductors are made. TSMC controls 53 percent of the world semiconductor business by itself.
Therefore it’s reasonable to say that Taiwan is now practically synonymous with semiconductors.
From the M1 through the Bionic circuits used in iPhones, all of Apple’s custom chips are produced by TSMC in Taiwan.
Apple’s lengthy partnership with TSMC has resulted in streamlined production and minimal disruption to regular business.
