New power line to Samui to cover needs for 10 years

Sornchai Jaturonlak, manager of the Samui office of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), said yesterday that daily electricity consumption on Samui and Pha Ngan islands peaked at 105MW in August, compared with the normal 97-98MW per day.

That was a big jump from 2006’s 70MW and 1986’s 17-18MW.

The island’s first 33-kilovolt cable has been sending 17-18MW since 1986, the second 115kV line was broken and the third 115kV line supplied 75MW. A recent explosion of this third line led to a 72-hour blackout, the longest ever on the tourist island.

The fourth 115kV line from Khanom Station on the mainland to Ban Mae Nam Station will add 120MW, so the first, third and fourth lines will provide more than 200MW altogether. That should be enough for projected consumption needs over the next decade.

As the islands receive 92-93MW from the two operating lines, while they usually need 97-98MW a day, the PEA has installed 25 mobile generators on Samui and four on Pha Ngan to provide 10MW, bringing capacity to 102-103MW in total.

According to a representative of the PEA, Samui has about 38,000 electricity users consuming 90MW, and Pha Ngan about 6,000 users consuming 15MW, bringing the number of users to 44,000 and usage to 105MW on the two islands.

Sornchai said that during the Christmas and New Year holidays, power demand would rise, so the PEA rented generators from companies to give 10MW starting on Monday. This would bring the total to 112-113MW.

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department’s Region 11 office in Surat Thani will also deploy more generators during the festive period, while officials have been instructed to tackle possible electricity issues. People can alert officials on the (077) 420 995 hotline.