Huge blackout hits S. Korea’s Ulsan, affecting some 155,000 households

A massive power outage hit the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan on Wednesday, leaving around 155,000 households without electricity for some two hours, Yonhap reports.

The blackout occurred at around 3:37 p.m. in a southern residential district of Ulsan, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, due to a malfunctioning substation, according to the industry ministry and the state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO).

It was the country's largest power outage since 2017, when some 200,000 households in the greater Seoul area were hit by a blackout.

"The power outage was caused by a malfunctioning switch isolator at the substation," a KEPCO official said, noting it was trying to determine the cause of the accident.

KEPCO said it has fully resumed operation of the substation after restoring power to the affected households at around 5:25 p.m.

The power failure plunged the residential district into chaos, leaving people trapped in elevators and causing traffic lights to go dark.

Many households, supermarkets, shops and hospitals were hit hard by the blackout, but cases of severe damage from a nearby industrial complex have yet to reported, according to officials.

Industry Minister Bang Moon-kyu convened an emergency meeting of related officials, calling for a thorough probe into the cause and countermeasures.

KEPCO said it will make all-out efforts to secure a stable supply of electricity in the future by thoroughly managing its facilities.