Mistake of KEPCO worker causes power outage at Samsung

A power failure at a Samsung plant halted production of liquid crystal display panels.

Officials at Korea Electric Power Corp. said the power loss appeared to have been caused by a worker's mistake at an electricity substation connected to the LCD production line. The exact reason is yet to be determined, they said.

The power cut at the Samsung plant in the city of Asan occurred at around 9:05 p.m. Thursday and lasted about 11 minutes before electricity was restored to the production line in Asan, about 95 kilometers south of Seoul, according to an official at Samsung Display, the display-making arm of Samsung Group.

The plant's key facilities were not affected by the power cut as an uninterruptible power supply system immediately kicked in, the Samsung official said.

"We are currently restoring other facilities and estimating the size of damage," the official said.

He said it will take a considerable amount of time to normalize the entire LCD production line, noting the damage is estimated to reach several tens of billions of won, or several tens of millions of dollars.

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