Major cities across Taiwan including the capital Taipei have seen widespread power failures after a reported accident at a power plant, BBC reports.
The nation's economic affairs minister, Wang Meihua, said an accident had occurred at a power plant in southern Taiwan, according to a report by state-linked Central News Agency.
The ministry would deal with the matter "urgently", she added.
The outage affected some five million households in Taiwan, she said.
State-run power operator Taipower said there had been an incident with a transformer at the Xingda power plant in the southern city of Kaohsiung, and that they were activating backup sources of power.
The power plant reportedly provides around a seventh of Taiwan's power.