90-minute Power Outage in Taiwan Threatens Chip Manufacturing

[btarunr]

A major power-outage affected regions of Taiwan with semiconductor manufacturing bases, earlier this morning (March 3, 2022). A malfunction with a power-station caused a sudden drop in power-generation, triggering power-grid failures, and resulting in blackouts lasting around 90 minutes. This may not seem like much, but for a semiconductor manufacturing facility with limited power back-up and time-critical and power-critical processes, 90 minutes is an eternity.

Taiwan News reports that a Taipower plant in Kaohsiung suffered a malfunction with steam leaks in the turbine room, triggering an emergency shutdown. This caused a 10.5 MW drop in supply. Such sudden supply-demand changes can cause AC frequency to fall out of the safe range, and transmission equipment in switch-yards are designed to automatically trip (to protect end-user equipment). A cascading power outage was seen in Wenshan District, Neihu District, Da'an District, and Xinyi District. In New Taipei City, Yonghe District, Banqiao District, and New Taipei Industrial Park. Various semiconductor-manufacturing companies are yet to report how this power-loss affected them.



Update 07:02 UTC: In the wake of this power-outage, major semiconductor companies put out their initial assessments of how this affected them.

• TSMC said it faced no outage, there was a manageable effect on the UMC plant in Nanke. Some TSMC plants experienced a voltage drop lasting 400 to 1000 ms, and the company is assessing how this impacts them. Factory equipment at UMC Nanke plant is affected, but restarted. TSMC stressed that the impact on its production should be negligible
• Display panel maker Innolux faced a voltage drop or shutdown, and the company is assessing its impact. The company was running on back-up generators.
• Yageo Kaohsiung, which makes passive components said that it faced an outage, which was supported by back-up power. Its production line isn't as sensitive to outages as silicon fabrication
• DRAM makers Nanya and Winbond report no impact
• PCB manufacturers Taihong, HannStar etc., located in the Kaohsiung area, report plant shutdowns due to the outage, and "slight" wastages. The company is sitting on enough inventory to cover the shortfall
• Zhengwei Tucheng with makes power connectors, lost power for 1.5 hours, but the production line wasn't affected. Connectors are low-tech items.
• Nanzi Science and Technology Park, an SEZ housing many companies reported a power outages.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Arrakis9]

just when you thought the prices on chips were coming on a downward trend.

 

[LabRat 891]

Pretty sure it's been brought up before, but:
It still is absolutely flabbergasting to me these multi-billion dollar facilities don't have uninterruptible power. I know there are some limitations in space for such sub-systems, but in the US, even Casinos often have backup power.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So far there are no reports of any issues at any of the semiconductor plants.

 

[windwhirl]

OH, FOR F***'S SAKE! FREAKING COME ON! WHY DO THEY ALWAYS HAVE THIS ISSUE, GOD FREAKING DAMMIT

Pretty sure it's been brought up before, but:
It still is absolutely flabbergasting to me these multi-billion dollar facilities don't have uninterruptible power. I know there are some limitations in space for such sub-systems, but in the US, even Casinos often have backup power.

Agreed. Also, these fabs are like small towns, they should have the space for backup generators/power supplies.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Pretty sure it's been brought up before, but:
It still is absolutely flabbergasting to me these multi-billion dollar facilities don't have uninterruptible power. I know there are some limitations in space for such sub-systems, but in the US, even Casinos often have backup power.

Do you have any idea how much power these fabs use? A generator would take too long to kick in and it would barely keep the lights on.
TSMC has invested heavily in their own solar panels, but even that might not be enough.
Three years ago, TSMC alone, used close to 5% of Taiwans available electricity.
There was also reports recently that they've bought up close to 100% of all renewable electricity being produced in Taiwan.

TSMC Becomes the World’s First Semiconductor Company to Join RE100, Committed to 100% Renewable Energy Usage

TSMC buys almost all green power generated by certified producers - Focus Taiwan

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, has bought almost all green power produced and traded by certified enterprises in the country, the Bureau of Standard, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) said Friday.

focustaiwan.tw

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Got to keep those prices high somehow.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Again, none of the semiconductor companies were badly affected, if at all.

【303大停電】台積電證實：部分廠區受壓降影響

全台今（3）日上午陸續傳出大停電，雖第一時間竹科並未傳出受到影響，並傳出南科有壓降情況。台積電證實，部分廠區受電力壓降影響，歷時約400至1000多毫秒不等。

tw.stock.yahoo.com

 

[LabRat 891]

Do you have any idea how much power these fabs use? A generator would take too long to kick in and it would barely keep the lights on.
TSMC has invested heavily in their own solar panels, but even that might not be enough.
Three years ago, TSMC alone, used close to 5% of Taiwans available electricity.
There was also reports recently that they've bought up close to 100% of all renewable electricity being produced in Taiwan.

TSMC Becomes the World’s First Semiconductor Company to Join RE100, Committed to 100% Renewable Energy Usage

The level of importance to Taiwan and the world, along with the absolutely bonkers amount of money involved should warrant their own specially licensed power generation, or at least some kind of accomodations. Don't even need to have the backups on-site. Special backups elsewhere on the grid, dedicated to the fabs' facilities would do. Theoretically, if they've invested in Power Conditioning on-site, the grid could continue to deliver 'dirty power', exclusively to the Fabs.
If they're using that much of the nation's power generation capacity, and contributes so greatly to the nation's economy, don't you think it worthwhile of a 'mega engineering' project?

The problem is probably not that of an insurmountable technical challenge. Rather, that every power outage every interruption these manufacturers have experienced, have allowed prompted the possibility of increased pricing.

 

[Firedrops]

Pretty sure it's been brought up before, but:
It still is absolutely flabbergasting to me these multi-billion dollar facilities don't have uninterruptible power. I know there are some limitations in space for such sub-systems, but in the US, even Casinos often have backup power.

Why would they? Like hard drive companies, every time disaster strikes, their profit margins and share price fly to mars and never come back down.

In the end, their goal is to make money, producing stuff just happens to help them do that, sometimes.

 

[phanbuey]

Why would they? Like hard drive companies, every time disaster strikes, their profit margins and share price fly to mars and never come back down.

In the end, their goal is to make money, producing stuff just happens to help them do that, sometimes.

This is great point of view. These guys have no competition and sell a product that is absolutely critial to all current tech.

... if they go down because of power then it's actually a win for them, they become more scare, have reasons to raise prices etc.

 

[Ferrum Master]

@TheLostSwede

Did you forget to unplug your iron again?

 

[TheLostSwede]

The level of importance to Taiwan and the world, along with the absolutely bonkers amount of money involved should warrant their own specially licensed power generation, or at least some kind of accomodations. Don't even need to have the backups on-site. Special backups elsewhere on the grid, dedicated to the fabs' facilities would do. Theoretically, if they've invested in Power Conditioning on-site, the grid could continue to deliver 'dirty power', exclusively to the Fabs.
If they're using that much of the nation's power generation capacity, and contributes so greatly to the nation's economy, don't you think it worthwhile of a 'mega engineering' project?

The problem is probably not that of an insurmountable technical challenge. Rather, that every power outage every interruption these manufacturers have experienced, have allowed prompted the possibility of increased pricing.

Do companies where you live have their own power plants, or off-site power backups that can kick in, in under 10 milliseconds if there's a power fluctuation?
I don't think any nation has this, so claiming that Taiwan should have this is a bit silly to be honest.
Yes, they have some kind of redundancy, but the redundant systems don't always respond quickly enough, as it depends on how the outage happens.
In the 15 years since I moved to Taiwan, this was by far the longest power outage I've experienced here, but it mostly affected residential areas.

Why would they? Like hard drive companies, every time disaster strikes, their profit margins and share price fly to mars and never come back down.

In the end, their goal is to make money, producing stuff just happens to help them do that, sometimes.

Actually, for the foundry companies, a power outage is a disaster, as they lose output, which they have to reimburse their customers for, so no, this is not a positive thing if you're a foundry business.

@TheLostSwede

Did you forget to unplug your iron again?

Nah, I tripped over this.

 

[Chomiq]

Do companies where you live have their own power plants

In fact they do, at least the local major chemical plant has its own combined heat and power plant. That's how the industry operated before centralized power was introduced. Sure they mainly rely on the main grid but not solely.

 

[TheLostSwede]

In fact they do, at least the local major chemical plant has its own combined heat and power plant. That's how the industry operated before centralized power was introduced. Sure they mainly rely on the main grid but not solely.

Well, Taiwan was a dictatorship back then, so all the powerplants until recently were state run. History plays a huge role in how things are done in different countries.

 

[Turmania]

So far there are no reports of any issues at any of the semiconductor plants.

why you always defend Taiwan for any sort of criticism ? yet we hear almost everymonth something goes off there...

 

[TheLostSwede]

why you always defend Taiwan for any sort of criticism ? yet we hear almost everymonth something goes off there...

Huh? I live in Taiwan, I read the local news and clearly had already seen that this wasn't a serious event.
So you think I should cheer on the people that are expecting prices to go up, when nothing actually happened?
And FYI, I have my fair share of criticism of this island and I would rather not ever work for a Taiwanese company again, but I'm also not into spreading BS about things that never happened.
I don't know where you live, but if something was reported in the news that was either lacking information or was untrue, would you not comment on it?

 

[mb194dc]

Again, none of the semiconductor companies were badly affected, if at all.

【303大停電】台積電證實：部分廠區受壓降影響

全台今（3）日上午陸續傳出大停電，雖第一時間竹科並未傳出受到影響，並傳出南科有壓降情況。台積電證實，部分廠區受電力壓降影響，歷時約400至1000多毫秒不等。

tw.stock.yahoo.com

They must all have power supply redundancy for exactly these kinds of events.

Management will be getting sacked pretty quickly if they don't!

 

[TheLostSwede]

They must all have power supply redundancy for exactly these kinds of events.

Management will be getting sacked pretty quickly if they don't!

Maybe read my comment with regards to how much power they use.
It's simply not possible to have proper redundancy for something like this.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

NEXT HEADLINE: "Birds land on power lines outside man's house in rural Taiwan; TSMC predicts global shortage to continue until 2026"

 

[mb194dc]

Maybe read my comment with regards to how much power they use.
It's simply not possible to have proper redundancy for something like this.

Really, could probably design system where the power supplied for manufacturing doesn't come directly off the grid? Given the $$$$ involved here.

Just a quick check and looks like 50MW UPS is quite possible to get with relative ease if you can pay for it of course!

 

[TheLostSwede]

Really, could probably design system where the power supplied for manufacturing doesn't come directly off the grid? Given the $$$$ involved here.

Just a quick check and looks like 50MW UPS is quite possible to get with relative ease if you can pay for it of course!

Well, there's a business opportunity for you then. Put together a package deal and go talk to all the foundries.

 

[mb194dc]

Well, there's a business opportunity for you then. Put together a package deal and go talk to all the foundries.

Pretty sure they'll have already... The point is even a 90 minute power interruption shouldn't be causing problems at an organisation like TSMC which is worth $600bn+!.

 

[Bomby569]

It's never a good thing when a bussiness is depending on the power grid never failling. Someone needs to redesign the process.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Pretty sure they'll have already... The point is even a 90 minute power interruption shouldn't be causing problems at an organisation like TSMC which is worth $600bn+!.

You're kidding right? No company the size of TSMC has that kind of power backup. Parts of the island didn't even get their power back until earlier tonight.