TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A defective underground power cable affected electrical supply to 4,793 households in Taoyuan City’s Zhongli and Pingzhen Districts at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday (March 12).

Taipower staff said the outage was associated with the Dongshe (東社) Substation, according to BCC. Taipower was able to transfer power, with 1,523 households having power restored almost immediately, while another 1,350 households had power restored by 10:03 p.m.

However, it was not until 1:02 a.m. on Monday (March 13) that power was completely restored to all affected households, the report said.

Taipower noted poor night time visibility and inclement weather made repairs difficult, leading to a longer than expected power outage for many households. Taipower apologized for the incident and promised to strengthen maintenance and inspection of power distribution equipment to reduce the frequency of power outages.

In addition to the substation incident, four separate reports of sparks or electrical arcing were reported. Each incident involved electrical poles in the Guanyin District, but none of the sparking incidents caused a power outage.

Taipower said sparks were caused by salt spray in coastal areas accumulating on power line insulators. After long periods of good weather, salt can adhere to electrical poles and electrical equipment, with a slight drizzle causing abnormal leakage, discharges, or arcing.

To prevent such incidents from occurring, electrical pole insulators are regularly cleaned with purified water.