Fire at Kaohsiung plant will not affect power supply: Minister

Taipei, Sept. 10 (CNA) The fire that broke out at Taiwan's third-largest power plant, the Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung, on Tuesday night will not affect the nation's power supply, Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said on Wednesday.

The fire mainly affected the plant's new natural gas Unit 2, which had been in a test operation phase, with its 2-1 main body unharmed and its 2-2 body to be carefully inspected by Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) and its equipment provider, Kung told the press in an interview.

The plant's new natural gas Unit 1 was assessed to have no problems, Kung said.

To ensure an ample electricity supply, the state-run Taipower does not rule out deploying backup units, he added.

Kung also apologized for the distress caused to residents.

Meanwhile, Taipower said that preliminary assessments indicated that a gas leak in Unit 2 led to the fire.

The leak was detected at around 7:57 p.m. Tuesday, with the staff promptly stopping operations and reporting it, before the fire broke out at 8:05 p.m., Taipower said.

The Kaohsiung City Fire Department arrived at 8:24 p.m. and extinguished the fire, with no injuries reported.

The company pledged to investigate the cause of the leak and conduct comprehensive improvements to prevent similar incidents, as well as carry out inspections to see whether the damaged equipment needed replacement.

It added that it would regularly report on investigation updates and subsequent recovery matters.

Regarding concerns that the fire might have caused air pollution, Taipower said the Ministry of Environment and nearby air quality stations indicated there were no abnormalities.

The Hsinta Power Plant is a thermal power facility with the third-largest installed capacity in Taiwan.