Electricity back on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan at this moment

Electricity has been restored on both Koh Samui and Koh Phangan after an almost 4 day period of lack of electricity. Between 4am and 4.30am power came back on again, for the first time around the island.

The black occurred around 8am Tuesday morning when a main underground power cable short circuited.

Work at power outlets on Koh Samui

Having been declared as a disaster zone earlier on enabled the provincial authority to use its emergency budget of 50 million THB, which will be used to buy necessary supplies, particularly petrol, for affected people. 

Gas stations couldn't distribute diesel because they were out of diesel due to everybody buying this to run their generators or the pumps didn't work due to not having electricity. A catch 22 situation.

Many petrol stations on Samui were sold out as resorts and hotels hoarded the available fuel to power their generators for fear of a prolonged blackout. Fuel traders from Surat Thani normally deliver petrol three times a day, but since the blackout they have doubled the deliveries.

Many big generators have been arriving on the ferries from the mainland.

Repair work under way

Thaweesak Somwong, president of the Samui Tourism Promotion Association, played down the reports of cancellations, saying tourism to the island was not heavily affected because hotel and tour operators had reserve power generators to deal with such unexpected events. (The Nation)

Senee Puwasettathavorn, president of the tourism council of Surat Thani, said about 20 per cent of the tourism industry on the islands was affected by the blackout.

Meanwhile Koh Samui and Koh Phangan hospitals issued statements saying that they are not affected by the blackouts as they have sufficient petrol to operate the spare power generators.

Older reports state that more than 3,000 foreign tourists were waiting to leave Koh Samui via flights on Bangkok Airways (the only airline providing service to the island) causing unprecedented heavy congestion at Samui Airport. Conveniently the situation late March 2011 at Samui's airport seems to have been forgotten here.

The tourists said they had lost confidence in officials' ability to restore power after the island had been deprived of electricity for more than 24 hours, according to the source.

Vara Chanchow, director of the Provincial Electricity Authority, Region 2, in the South said the PEA had planned to install an additional power cable line to Pha-ngan and Koh Toa. The cable line ordered from Norway was to arrive on December 9 but the blackout happened abruptly. The installation of this back-up cable line will be finished next February. (The Nation)

Let's hope that the power stays on, now that it seemingly seems to have been repaired!

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Camille