Visitors flee power blackout on Koh Samui, Koh Phangan

[PeteC]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... oh-phangan

Visitors flee power blackout on Koh Samui, Koh Phangan

Published: 6/12/2012 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

SURAT THANI : Technicians worked through the night trying to restore electricity on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan as a two-day power blackout has forced thousands of tourists to flee the islands.

The islands have been without power since Tuesday morning after a section of an underground high-voltage cable in tambon Taling Ngam of Koh Samui district ruptured.

The cable provides electricity from Nakhon Si Thammarat's Khanom district.

Inspectors found that Khanom Electricity Generating Co in Nakhon Si Thammarat, which supplies power to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, temporarily shut off the electricity for maintenance.

The system failed when they tried to restart it, said Sakda Nawarat, the deputy chief of the Provincial Electricity Authority's (PEA) customer service section.

Chanchai Banditsaowaphak, assistant to the PEA governor on network operations, said technicians expected to finish the repairs to the broken section by 6am today.

Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan yesterday instructed state agencies to dispatch mobile generators to the affected areas, as tourists faced many problems after being without electricity since Tuesday.

Many tourists left their resorts, crowding Koh Samui's only airport in tumultuous scenes.

Typically at this time of year Koh Samui hosts about 20,000 tourists. That number shrank to about 1,000 yesterday.

Tourism officials said the blackout should not chase away tourists in the long term, as most holiday-makers have yet to arrive for what is the local high season, starting in the middle of the month.

"Total damages to tourism on the two islands should not be more than 5 billion baht," estimated Wanni Thaipanich, chairwoman of the association of tourism promotion for Koh Phangan.

Hotels and residents on the pair of islands struggled for light, using their own generators or candles.

But many people were hoarding supplies and several hotels were running out of fuel for their generators.

"Many hotels have also begun to stock oil [to fuel generators], for fear that petrol stations will run out of it," said Sunthon Phuphaibun, manager of Coral Cove hotel, which is in the dark after the hotel's generator failed yesterday when it overheated.

Mobile phones on Koh Samui were also knocked out after fuel for generators powering the island's transmission poles ran out.

During repairs yesterday, PEA officials had to rely on limited power supply reserves, forcing them to distribute power to small sections of the island in two-hour rotations.

"At least people could do some cooking," a PEA official said.

PTT Plc yesterday delivered about 200,000 litres of fuel to five petrol stations on Koh Samui to ease the fuel shortage.

[Nereus]

Inspectors found that Khanom Electricity Generating Co in Nakhon Si Thammarat, which supplies power to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, temporarily shut off the electricity for maintenance.
The system failed when they tried to restart it, said Sakda Nawarat, the deputy chief of the Provincial Electricity Authority's (PEA) customer service section.

Oops! Somchai did not twist those black and red wires together tight enough! In his defence his boss said it was lunch time, so all you Farangs better shut up.

[Takiap]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... oh-phangan


Typically at this time of year Koh Samui hosts about 20,000 tourists. That number shrank to about 1,000 yesterday.

What absolute bliss it must have been. Now, if they could have yearly blackout lasting for four or five days, I would seriously consider visiting Samui again. The only problem I could foresee would be a shortage of cold beers.

On a slightly different note.......I have a gut feeling that both these islands are getting the bum end of the deal. They generate a massive amount of revenue and while I could be wrong, it seems very little of that revenue gets reinvested into things like infrastructure and etc. At least here in Hua Hin it does seem like some revenue is being pumped back into the local area. At least we see roadworks and many other activities taking place almost constantly. Of course this means that at some point, it'll no longer be the ideal place to live, at least for some of us. The price of progress.

[Name Taken]

Inspectors found that Khanom Electricity Generating Co in Nakhon Si Thammarat, which supplies power to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, temporarily shut off the electricity for maintenance.
The system failed when they tried to restart it, said Sakda Nawarat, the deputy chief of the Provincial Electricity Authority's (PEA) customer service section.

Oops! Somchai did not twist those black and red wires together tight enough! In his defence his boss said it was lunch time, so all you Farangs better shut up.

[Nereus]

Engineers restore power on Samui, Phangan

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... ui-phangan

Electricity is back on Koh Samui and Phangan after engineers spent the night successfully restoring electricity, reports said.
Having been without power for three days, people and tourists on the two islands in Surat Thani woke up with electricity back to their homes and hotel rooms.

TV 3 reported that power was restored at 4am on Friday, two hours after engineers tested the line connecting with Surat Thani's mainland. The repairs finished at 2am, it added.

No officials were available for comments but short messages sent to the TV station from Koh Samui and Koh Phangan confirmed the report.

Surat Thani Governor Chatpong Chatphut declared the two islands a disaster zone after engineers failed to restore electricity on Thursday.

Mr Chatpong said declaring the islands a disaster zone will allow the province to spend an emergency budget of 50 million baht to help people affected by the prolonged power outage.

The governor also ordered the setting up of a temporary kitchen to prepare food for the people and sent trucks with water-making machines to areas where water production has been been halted.

A team of engineers on Thursday carried on with their repairs to an underground high-voltage cable, after spending the whole of Wednesday night trying in vain to restore power.

The electricity supply to the island was cut completely on Tuesday because of a rupture in a section of a 30km-long cable at tambon Taling Ngam in Samui district on the island.

The repairs could not be rushed as engineers had to make sure the work met international safety standards, said Wattana Phaekun, chief of the Provincial Electricity Authority's (PEA) customer service section for the South.

The repair work is 85% completed and officials were expected to be able to start supplying electricity by noon today, he said. The new deadline was the third after two previous delays.

Despite the assurance, provincial officials were sending power generators to the islands to meet emergency demand.

Koh Samui and Koh Phangan's hospitals can care for patients and tourists because the hospitals use generators, permanent secretary for public health Narong Shamethaphat said.

However, foreign tourists on Koh Phangan have mostly left after telecoms, restaurants and souvenir shops closed because of the blackout, Wanni Thaipanich, chairwoman of the Koh Phangan tourism promotion association, said.

Thanongsak Somwong, chairman of the Koh Samui tourism promotion association, said foreign tourists are sensitive about this kind of problem. "The blackout is expected to cause at least 12 billion baht in damage to tourism on Koh Samui," he said.

Acting PEA governor Namchai Lowatthanatrakun said the power cable rupture resulted from a surge in electricity demand from the high tourism season this month.

The PEA plans to start supplying electricity to the islands through a new underwater cable in March next year that will provide up to 200 megawatts of electricity, said Mr Wattana.
......................................................................................................

The repairs could not be rushed as engineers had to make sure the work met international safety standards, said Wattana Phaekun

So what condition was it prior to the fault?

Acting PEA governor Namchai Lowatthanatrakun said the power cable rupture resulted from a surge in electricity demand from the high tourism season this month.

So it was the fault of those pesky tourists again!
If reported correctly this quote is complete twaddle! If the system was up to "international" standards, then the built-in protection equipment would just trip off and protect the cable, regardless of any "surge".

[H2ODunc]

Once again it comes down to preparation. The power was off for 2 days and as said they put it on around the island for a few hours so we all got some. The last big storm that took down my power lines made me go out and get a generator. 20,000 Baht later and now I have a back up. A quick pull of the starter and I have enough power for the fridge, got to keep the beer cold, The aircon, TV, DVD etc and can charge the laptop and phone as well. I don't mind the odd outage as it makes me pick up that book I was reading and doing the other jobs around the house you put off when all is well.

[Dr Mike]

My daughter lives in NEW ORLEANS--she has been there for two hurricanes and says the post-hurricane power outage was worse than the storm and we saw the same thing in NYC and New Jersey after the latest hurricane.