Widespread power outages were reported across Taiwan on Thursday morning leaving millions in the dark after an alleged accident at a power plant in the southern part of the country. The blackouts began at approximately 9 a.m. on Thursday and impacted the areas of Taipei, New Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung,  Changhua, Keelung, Taoyuan, Hualien, and Miaoli, according to local reports. According to Taiwan Power Company (Taipower), the outages were caused by an equipment failure at the Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung City, which provides around a seventh of Taiwan’s power. Taipower officials told Taiwan News that the equipment malfunction at the plant in Kaohsiung City’s Yong’an District caused an “imbalance” in the southern power grid which in turn triggered the Longci Substation’s self-protection mechanism to disconnect from the grid. This caused an “instant loss of 10.5 million watts,” the company told local news outlets, and prompted the self-protection mechanism of power plants across southern Taiwan to disconnect from the …