Samui & Phangan Still Without Power For 2Nd Day .story Continues With Updated Info & Suggestions.

[Gulfsailor]

I am having a laugh a minute, and it got better and better every year, since the 9 years I am now here. Truly Amazing Thailand.

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Well, how childishly wonderful for you.

Consider if you will for a minute those people who are running businesses that depend on a regular supply of power, surely not such an outrageous demand in 2012, on an island that advertises itself as a world class vacation destination, consider their loss of income and their loss of reputation, through no fault of their own.

Consider also, those visitors who have spent their own hard earned money to travel there, only to find no power, no lighting, no hot water, refrigeration or television, swimming pool pumps dead, etc.etc.etc. all because of poor maintenance, poor planning, little or no information and a lack of skilled on site engineers.

But you seem to find it all very funny. are you Thai by any chance.

• Quote
  

No. Not Thai. From a European country where most people take everything too seriously, and love to blame everyone else for their misery. I have several economic interests on this island, one if them in tourism, so I am heavily affected by this power outage. But instead of moaning and complaining, I chose to laugh at it, and take it as it is, for as far as I can't have any influence on the situation. foreign business owners in Thailand should be well aware of all that can go wrong here, and should act accordingly. It's not difficult to buy a generator to supply yourself with electricity. One can also insure ones business for any loss from power out or flooding (another time people love to complain) And boohoo that your pool pump isn't working for a couple of days. With what you pay in this country in taxes and towards public utilities, don't expect the same level as in the West.

[livinthailandos]

not sure if someone has posted this or not but like ive been telling people around here you should be happy that you still have access to food and water, things could be much worse than this and while i understand how high frustration is just have to wait it out.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect App

[Maipenrai007]

Just sitting on the beach with a few candles lot and watched the lights go out on Koh P.

At the strike of 8pm off!

Chaweng should have power now !

[concerned]

I'm due to be there in a few weeks time. Think ill cancel the hotel booking now. No way I'm going there without electricity.

That's the spirit ! Good Lord ! Enjoy wherever you go. I'm sure we will really miss you !

Edited December 6, 2012 by concerned

[alibaba007]

The Hotel Association of Thailand wants to raise prices for hotels like those in Singapore,Hong Kong, Seul, Tokyo (crakdown on illegal/cheap guesthouse/hotel. For Samui also???

Raise first the quality for all the Thai people

[taninthai]

Dunno what your all complaining about been living over in krabi for the last 5 years no electric in the day and we run generator a night only small genny so no air-con

What do you need electric in the daytime for anyway?

[BigC]

checked out of samui. call me when the power comes back on

i hope there shall still be people there by that time who wants to stay on a tropical island mess

most tourist would have left by now cant really blame them. as to not moaning i suppose we should not moan specailly the touristys who worked all year to get away for christmas to a 40 degree heat with no electric food suppliies going off. freezes braking GENORSTORS BRAKING

everyone stressed. sounds like a dream holiday and people should not complain infact if they are pissed off next time just send us your money and stay home as that is all we want.

what a stupid comment someone said. " why are we complaining"

how about corrupt government lack of electric

Samui now a city with a dead brand new electric line in the ocean a electric station in manam that never opened due to money missing.

rubbish not colect scatter every where. elction round the corner.

I am sorry but the current mayor is to blame and i dont care for his excuses as his job is to manage these things. i assume that he is blaming someone and that person is blaming him and nothing gets solved and evething remains a mess.

I wish people out here exepted responability for therre mistakes out here but they dont hence why this country is a mess cause they never learn and move forward, They never stand up and say "ia m to blame my fault i take responablity" where i come fron that takes allot of stength to do that as it is the right thing.

[angryfarang]

I wonder how much damage there really is to this cable. Maybe the whole cable is damaged and needs to be replaced, all 24km of it...?!

[Maipenrai007]

If they say that 1 cable is still ok why is there generator trucks all around the island?

I heard 1 cable had a problem, is it both or are they still trying to figure it out.

Is there a worst case scenario to replace the whole cable if need be?

I love te comments in the various online news site, yes will be back at 12pm, 9pm, 3am....why can't they say we have know idea.

I would cop that!

[Boater]

Just seen a few people post on fb that electric could be out for the next 2-5 weeks ! If they have to completely put new cables down , this could be the right timeframe

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[Maipenrai007]

Just seen a few people post on fb that electric could be out for the next 2-5 weeks ! If they have to completely put new cables down , this could be the right timeframe

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

My logic tells me.......if you are trying to repair something you normally know within 12hrs how to repair it, maybe another 12-24 Hr to find the parts and the actual repair is the quickest part of the job.

So they know the line is blown, shorted, exploded...they have sourcde parts.....flown in parts and or people.....and still no news about whats happening, like, oh yeah hang on we are almost there.

Next you get to the stage oh Sh!T its farked what do we do now, there are always be few outrageous ideas that might work, long shots.......are we at the long shot stage, I would think so.

I am betting whole cable to be replaced......electric out for 3-4 weeks on some sort of rotation slightly better than we have now.

Anyone wanting to take odds on that?

[marstons]

Zero political inspiration. Just a desire for competence, or is that not a concern to you? Is the concept of leadership too fat fetched in this land. Or does the majority of tourists abandoning the 3rd most popular tourist destination warrant concern?

Mike Macarelli

Chaiyaphum, Thailand

Sent from my Samsung SIII

So whos is in fourth place Bangkok, Pattaya or Phuket. Makes about as much sence as your previous post.

[Soupdragon]

Just seen a few people post on fb that electric could be out for the next 2-5 weeks ! If they have to completely put new cables down , this could be the right timeframe

Not too many companies worldwide that do this sort of operation. It was a Norwegian company that laid the two existing cables. That would mean shipping the cable from Norway possibly manufacturing it first, unless they happen to have 24Kms of the right cable stashed somewhere in Asia or the middle east. Then equipment has to be brought in, I would think from Singapore. All this assuming that the budget is available as this sort of job is kinda expensive.

Maybe some experts can comment on this.

[Tropicalevo]

10 pm - goodie, time for Bang Rak to be lit up.

Power comes on - 10 minutes later - no power.

Who stole my 2 hour slot?

And why is Bophut still lit up like a Christmas tree?

[marstons]

High voltage cables are a strange thing and failures do create massive effects .

Nonsense.

Why are you making excuses for the incompetence and the arrogance with which public servants treat the population here.

If the equipment was used within its limits and underwent the correct maintenance by properly trained engineers then it wouldnt fail.

It doesnt fail in Paris, It doesnt fail in Tokyo and it doesnt fail in Hong Kong. So why has it failed in Koh samui, and why, after 3 days have they not been repaired. I read that the one engineer who could solve the problem had to be flown down from Chiang Rai, (was he busy repairing underwater cables there too?)

Is Samui so impoverished it cant afford to maintain its infrastructure, cant afford to pay for competent engineers to look after its systems?

Did anybody notice that when the Skytrain was built in BKK it was not engineered by Thais? It was a German company subcontracted to do the construction. The level of traing and education here in Thailand was always adequate within the everyday TV and newspaper realm of a small, proud nation, but now that Thailand finds itself interfacing more and more with first word competence, awareness and expectations, the government and its media are becoming constantly embarrased and losing international face more and more.

Fifteen or 20 years ago the. govt could get away with saying or doing whatever it pleased. But, SCARY MONSTER, the internet and WWW have. utterly kicked their legas away.

"Responsible spokesmen" are still desperately continuing to make up "statistics" and facts and figures (ie normally 20,000 tourists here - now there are 1,000) seemingly unaware that then entire rest of the world is watching via online sources, and able to access databases and TAT stats, andlaughing at their transparently idioticic nonsense.

One poster here mentioned HK, Singapore and somewhere else with a similar problem that would be a simple routine fix, never make the news and be done overnight. Absolutely true. But these are countries that don't hang their HT mains cables from trees and poles, all tangled together with the cable TV and phone lines, and joined with wire and sticky tape. These countries also don't produce university graduates who put a Band Aid on their faces when they have a toothache or consider "fresh" juice to be a can that they only bought yesterday.

Every month, little by little and more and more, poor little Thailand, a country. for generations so proud of being independent and separate from the rest of the world, is now begining to discover that this is no good thing.

There is only so far you can go in the international community making total cock-ups and then blathering pathetically to try to save face. And every time it happens this lovely, happy, carefree nation is shooting itself in the foot again and again. But it's cheap and sunny here, so what the heck!

R

Ahh yes but HK and Singapore cannot bang on about never being colonised, where as Thailand stands proud on it. A few days after the skytrain was handed over to the Thais from the Germans an unmanned train had the brake left off and ran into a passenger carryng train. Basically they think they dont need outside help, are better than the outside world but as this, what is a disater if your living there shows complete incompetance. Last years diaster, the floods. and so on and so on, nearlry forgot the 240 runway closures in a year for repairs at the new airport. The power supply to Samui should have been sorted years ago, but will probably be a short term band aid fix.

[BigC]

If they say that 1 cable is still ok why is there generator trucks all around the island?

I heard 1 cable had a problem, is it both or are they still trying to figure it out.

Is there a worst case scenario to replace the whole cable if need be?

I love te comments in the various online news site, yes will be back at 12pm, 9pm, 3am....why can't they say we have know idea.

I would cop that!

u know what i reckon. i reckon that none of them know what they are doing so they have a team rotating the power round the island and another team just starring at the cables like a bunch of homer simpsons trying to come up with a solution whilst drinking bottles of whiskey and lsitening to music

or they have just told them that they are going to the shop for something and biggered off home.

[BigC]

can;t we ask the americans if we could borrow saddam hussaines old gernorator i doubt he shall be needing it for a while?

[Maipenrai007]

If they say that 1 cable is still ok why is there generator trucks all around the island?

I heard 1 cable had a problem, is it both or are they still trying to figure it out.

Is there a worst case scenario to replace the whole cable if need be?

I love te comments in the various online news site, yes will be back at 12pm, 9pm, 3am....why can't they say we have know idea.

I would cop that!

u know what i reckon. i reckon that none of them know what they are doing so they have a team rotating the power round the island and another team just starring at the cables like a bunch of homer simpsons trying to come up with a solution whilst drinking bottles of whiskey and lsitening to music

or they have just told them that they are going to the shop for something and biggered off home.

Was there even a cable to begin with? Maybe the whole system is wirless and the password has been change on the modem....seems logical to me!

[Maipenrai007]

High voltage cables are a strange thing and failures do create massive effects .

Nonsense.

Why are you making excuses for the incompetence and the arrogance with which public servants treat the population here.

If the equipment was used within its limits and underwent the correct maintenance by properly trained engineers then it wouldnt fail.

It doesnt fail in Paris, It doesnt fail in Tokyo and it doesnt fail in Hong Kong. So why has it failed in Koh samui, and why, after 3 days have they not been repaired. I read that the one engineer who could solve the problem had to be flown down from Chiang Rai, (was he busy repairing underwater cables there too?)

Is Samui so impoverished it cant afford to maintain its infrastructure, cant afford to pay for competent engineers to look after its systems?

Did anybody notice that when the Skytrain was built in BKK it was not engineered by Thais? It was a German company subcontracted to do the construction. The level of traing and education here in Thailand was always adequate within the everyday TV and newspaper realm of a small, proud nation, but now that Thailand finds itself interfacing more and more with first word competence, awareness and expectations, the government and its media are becoming constantly embarrased and losing international face more and more.

Fifteen or 20 years ago the. govt could get away with saying or doing whatever it pleased. But, SCARY MONSTER, the internet and WWW have. utterly kicked their legas away.

"Responsible spokesmen" are still desperately continuing to make up "statistics" and facts and figures (ie normally 20,000 tourists here - now there are 1,000) seemingly unaware that then entire rest of the world is watching via online sources, and able to access databases and TAT stats, andlaughing at their transparently idioticic nonsense.

One poster here mentioned HK, Singapore and somewhere else with a similar problem that would be a simple routine fix, never make the news and be done overnight. Absolutely true. But these are countries that don't hang their HT mains cables from trees and poles, all tangled together with the cable TV and phone lines, and joined with wire and sticky tape. These countries also don't produce university graduates who put a Band Aid on their faces when they have a toothache or consider "fresh" juice to be a can that they only bought yesterday.

Every month, little by little and more and more, poor little Thailand, a country. for generations so proud of being independent and separate from the rest of the world, is now begining to discover that this is no good thing.

There is only so far you can go in the international community making total cock-ups and then blathering pathetically to try to save face. And every time it happens this lovely, happy, carefree nation is shooting itself in the foot again and again. But it's cheap and sunny here, so what the heck!

R

Ahh yes but HK and Singapore cannot bang on about never being colonised, where as Thailand stands proud on it. A few days after the skytrain was handed over to the Thais from the Germans an unmanned train had the brake left off and ran into a passenger carryng train. Basically they think they dont need outside help, are better than the outside world but as this, what is a disater if your living there shows complete incompetance. Last years diaster, the floods. and so on and so on, nearlry forgot the 240 runway closures in a year for repairs at the new airport. The power supply to Samui should have been sorted years ago, but will probably be a short term band aid fix.

Kicking the can down the road....sounds like the European Central Bank fixing the European Economy.....it's an international effect. The Mayan's Were Right!

[Tropicalevo]

Well the good news is.....

There are LOADS of big generators arriving on Samui via the ferries! (Seen by a friend earlier today!)

So I guess that we are in for a 2 -3 week haul after all.

It could be a very interesting Christmas. I predict that it will either be very quiet (no one comes) or hectic as hxll (they come but no power). I will be happy to be proved wrong though.

[NanLaew]

Didn't see an ruptured cable on the channel 7 news slot. Just a deep ditch that revealed three huge cables with splice housings. I would reckon that finding the bad splice(s) where the power is shorting to ground isn't easy. I have current-traced low voltage lines for power leakage and to find the leakage path, you need to apply the voltage. How they would go about finding the bad splice on a thick, 24 km long cable without shoving full voltage through it is a step beyond the TTL logic I grew up with. If the old cable is sufficiently buggered, it may be a case of any repair only lasting until the next 'weak link' blows. Maybe there's more to the replacing the whole cable rumour after all.

[Notstupid30]

Back in the day people use to jump in the sea with a bar of soap ? I think it maybe need applying in Samui & Phangan...

[underthebridge]

Just seen a few people post on fb that electric could be out for the next 2-5 weeks ! If they have to completely put new cables down , this could be the right timeframe

Not too many companies worldwide that do this sort of operation. It was a Norwegian company that laid the two existing cables. That would mean shipping the cable from Norway possibly manufacturing it first, unless they happen to have 24Kms of the right cable stashed somewhere in Asia or the middle east. Then equipment has to be brought in, I would think from Singapore. All this assuming that the budget is available as this sort of job is kinda expensive.

Maybe some experts can comment on this.

First, I am not an expert. However, I have some knowledge from reading "Teknisk Ukeblad" (Technology Review Weekly) here in Norway which sometimes features HVDC cable manufacturing & projects. From that, I don't think anybody can buy 24 kms of submarine cable "off the shelf" - it is a high-tech product manufactured to order and I believe lead time is not anywhere near 2-5 weeks, and that is just for the manufacturing process... They can also be tricky to repair - your best bet is that the engineers will manage to do that successfully.

[churchill]

What a disaster ....

"Business was running as usual. The airport was still open and hotels from five to lower stars have survived without facing serious trouble. Especially the small and medium-sized inns and guesthouses have offered special services to make their guests relax.'

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Koh-Samui-development-in-spotlight-after-blackout-30195732.html

whilst the other paper has been reporting for the last 2 days that problems are going to be fixed within hours ..latest report 12 hours from 20.30 this evening ......so all should be well by tomorrow am ...

There must be a better way to keep locals and local business better informed and updated .. as another poster suggested all the campaign trucks could easily announce times that electric will be on in the areas they drive through .

[Pineapplesamui]

Nothing we can do about it other than make good use of the power when we have it. Charge phones, cook, hot shower etc

No point complaining to the Internet.

I don't think anybody has noticed that its stopped raining.

It's an island.. Shit happens.. Ever been camping before.. The Thais aren't worried because they know how to live from basic means watch them and we might learn something...

At times like these rather than complain why not try to do something constructive instead help someone out give the neighbors some candles.. This forum is great for keeping people up to date but fuc_k there's a lot of people winging...

[Boater]

Nothing we can do about it other than make good use of the power when we have it. Charge phones, cook, hot shower etc

No point complaining to the Internet.

I don't think anybody has noticed that its stopped raining.

It's an island.. Shit happens.. Ever been camping before.. The Thais aren't worried because they know how to live from basic means watch them and we might learn something...

At times like these rather than complain why not try to do something constructive instead help someone out give the neighbors some candles.. This forum is great for keeping people up to date but fuc_k there's a lot of people winging...

Try saying that to a tourist who has probaly spent the good part of 100,000 thb coming here for a holiday , or the business owners losing income everyday day, or the Thai employees who probably rant being paid due to there guineas closing ...

Yes shit happens , but certain problems are preventable , this being one as it isn't the first or probably the last time it has happened !

Edited December 6, 2012 by Boater

[Boater]

Can't seem to edit , but 2 words above auto corrected on iPad

or the business owners losing income everyday day, or the Thai employees who probably rant being paid due to there guineas closing ...

Should read

or the business owners losing income everyday day, or the Thai employees who probably are not being paid due to there buisness closing ...

[robsamui]

The comedy continues. I really think that all these Very Important Thai people have no awareness that the utter rubbish they are confidently coming out with is being transmitted around the world. The fact appeares to be that absolutely nobody in the Thai administration has any idea at all about what's going on, what it's going to cost or how long it will take to fix. And it now turns out that Thailand doesn't seem to have tthe technical knowledge or ability (or spare parts) to fix this cable that was engineered for them by a Norweigian company.

Some of the silly quotes make me giggle. . . . .

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. . . .

Thanongsak Somwong, chairman of the Koh Samui tourism promotion association, said "foreign tourists are sensitive about this kind of problem."

It's all gripping stuff!

R

[Boater]

Thanongsak Somwong, chairman of the Koh Samui tourism promotion association, said "foreign tourists are sensitive about this kind of problem

Yes , because most are used to electricity

Unless there has been a major disaster , most electric blackouts are repaired in a couple of hours as they have a plan a and plan b tp fix every issue ...

[ydraw]

Power in Lamai came back on at around 3:50am