Bangkok's Airports Safe From April 5-14 Power Outage Impact

[webfact]

Bangkok's airports safe from April 5-14 power outage impact
By English News



BANGKOK, March 14 – The Airports of Thailand (AoT) has given reassurances that a possible power outage during April 5-14 will not affect operations at Bangkok’s two major airports – Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang.

AoT Senior Executive Vice President Somchai Sawasdeepon said Wednesday that AoT and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) will closely monitor the situation during the 10-day period when a gas platform in Myanmar which supplies natural gas for Thailand’s power generating will be shut down for maintenance.

Mr Somchai, acting AoT president, said Suvarnabhumi airport receives its power supply from nearby Nong Chok and Onnuj power plants while the Rangsit and Lat Prao plants distribute electricity to Don Meaung airport.

Don Meaung airport has four power generators with a combined production capacity of one MW while Suvarnabhumi airport is equipped with 79 generators which produce electricity at 2.5 MW/day and are capable of supplying power for 10 hours.

Mr Somchai gave assurances that the electricity supply and service to passengers will not be disrupted at either airport though a special alert is required on the afternoon of April 5 when the power supply will be low. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2013-03-14

[A_Traveller]

Given the actuality of an hour power outage last year when both the emergency systems failed [therefore no electricity for Air Traffic Control] leading to some 50 redirected incoming flights IIRC somehow such reassurances have a somewhat dubious quality to them hereabouts.

[laurentbkk]

I thought we had to worry when government says not to .,.. hope my flight on the 11th will still be ..maintain.

[h90]

The same airport which didn't had radar because the electric was down?

[Thait Spot]

They said the same about Don Muang in the floods

[retell]

I thought we had to worry when government says not to .,.. hope my flight on the 11th will still be ..maintain.

was my thought also

[IMA_FARANG]

THis reassurance does NOT include the gaurentee of power being constant at intermediate air traffic control sites, does it?

It is common practice for incoming and outgoing flights operating in country to report their altitude, heading, and such traffic details as they pass a traffic control site.

Nowadays it is automated process as the aircraft comes within that ATC sites area to identify themselves via a on board transponder to that ATC site.

There is NO gaurentee that, despite Swampy and Don Mueng having good backup power, that ATC site lets just say .... (picking one at random) the ATC site at Buri Ram ... will have power to run it's transponder as a scheduled flight comes into it's area.

Hopefully they will, but there's no gaurentee.

Which will mean they are basically just flying Visual Flight Rules or VFR (without communicating to the ATC net).

and without a co-ordinating ATC net.

Edited March 14, 2013 by IMA_FARANG

[MaxLee]

Bangkok's airports UNsafe from April 5-14 power outage impact

Wanna bet???

[monkeycountry]

Perhaps Thailand should have considered renting a few supertankers full of gas from elsewhere on earth to supply gas during those 10 days. Yes it would be expensive, but still cheaper than the various damage caused by power outages (loss of business, broken electrical appliances, reputation, investor confidence etc.). Furthermore, most if not all consumers would prefer to pay a bit extra for power during those 10 days rather than having no power at all.

[MaxLee]

Burma: "You treat our workers like trash, so we turn off your gas!"

Thailand (after the crisis): "You turned off our gas, we're gonna treat your workers like even worse trash."

[RisqEM]

It just reminds me of The Hangover 2 when they said Thailand has rolling blackouts because of an out dated electrical grid. Callin' it like it is apparently!

[belg]

wonder how this will affect tourists ... hey, love thailand and stuff, but by the way, you might be in the dark for 10 days... no airco, no electricity, no skytrain or bts ? who knows...

[draftvader]

I thought there wasn't going to be an energy crisis. I really can't keep up. I'm just changing a project I have to allow for the power going out regularly over Songkran...brilliant!

[MaxLee]

wonder how this will affect tourists ... hey, love thailand and stuff, but by the way, you might be in the dark for 10 days... no airco, no electricity, no skytrain or bts ? who knows...

Talking about tourism, have there been any can emanations reported so far?

Of course the newspapers in Thailand, even if they're international, can't report that yet, because they would expose the TMT (Tourism Mafia of Thailand) and the EGAT ministry to lose Internatuonal FACE...

[bkk_mike]

I have to agree with others who've said that government assurances that it's all going to be OK, are taken with a pinch of salt after the floods. The number of times we were told Bangkok wouldn't see any flooding, etc.

In fact, if anything, a government department saying it's going to be OK because of our contingency plans has me even more worried than I was before...

[thaikahuna]

THis reassurance does NOT include the gaurentee of power being constant at intermediate air traffic control sites, does it?

It is common practice for incoming and outgoing flights operating in country to report their altitude, heading, and such traffic details as they pass a traffic control site.

Nowadays it is automated process as the aircraft comes within that ATC sites area to identify themselves via a on board transponder to that ATC site.

There is NO gaurentee that, despite Swampy and Don Mueng having good backup power, that ATC site lets just say .... (picking one at random) the ATC site at Buri Ram ... will have power to run it's transponder as a scheduled flight comes into it's area.

Hopefully they will, but there's no gaurentee.

Which will mean they are basically just flying Visual Flight Rules or VFR (without communicating to the ATC net).

and without a co-ordinating ATC net.

They are being very irresponsible by not having dorect back up power for all ATC facilities.

[kruangfaifar]

Its funny how these stories keep coming up about what is going to happen when the gas from Burma is turned off for a while but I have never seen a report by EGAT that states that power outages will occur. EGAT as the authority in charge of power generation in Thailand will be the first to know. They have other options for supplying power in case of any shortfall in gas from Burma such as running gas fired plant on diesel (many gas turbines installed in Thailand have dual fuel capability with on line change over), importing LNG through the PTT Terminal in Maptaphut, using more hydro both within Thailand and from Laos and running coal fired plant. Every story that I have seen on this so far has been quoting somebody telling us how clever they are for making contingency plans. I think they are just showing off. The reality is that it is under control PTT are going to double the LNG imports in April to take care of the shortfall have a look at

http://www.power-eng.com/news/2013/03/01/thailand-ptt-plc-doubles-liquefied-natural-gas-imports-doe-april-to-avert-possible-power-outages.html

[hellodolly]

I wasen't worried until I read the post's on this thread.

[chainarong]

Well , lets see what happens, both airports have plenty of power on standby and alternative power redirection , so lets give them all the support we can muster in their hour of need , then if it stuffs up , anybody got a degree in airport management???

[MaxLee]

Well , lets see what happens, both airports have plenty of power on standby and alternative power redirection , so lets give them all the support we can muster in their hour of need , then if it stuffs up , anybody got a degree in airport management???

Sure, there are plenty of them... In Khao-San road, for just 500 Baht... Satisfaction guaranteed...

[Robby nz]

Hope they are right, have some friends flying out on the 8th.

What about the computers? everything works on them if they are down there is no ticketing no nothing.

[MaxLee]

Every smartphone user is practically screwed, because they eat up double and triple the energy of a regular mobile phone.

No electricity, no charge up your smartphone. Or alternatively you can buy up to 10 or more portable batteries of at least 5,000 in power, which will cost the smartphone user 20,000 Baht or more...

[Mosha]

TAT will shortly start a campaign telling stargazers, April will be a great time to visit, as there will be no light pollution.

[rubl]

Every smartphone user is practically screwed, because they eat up double and triple the energy of a regular mobile phone.

No electricity, no charge up your smartphone. Or alternatively you can buy up to 10 or more portable batteries of at least 5,000 in power, which will cost the smartphone user 20,000 Baht or more...

I must be getting old, I still vaguely remember being on holiday meant being out of touch. Relaxed, really away from it all, with two weeks newspapers back home to catch up afterwards.

Obviously a longing for such a situation marks me as having passed beyond possible help

[surangw]

Bangkok's airports UNsafe from April 5-14 power outage impact

Wanna bet???

no way to make a win with even odds

[gk10002000]

That may be about the worst month to be in Bangkok. Between the weather and Songkran coming up. Makes it hard to go about one's business and liesurely sight see

[salty]

Does all this mean there will be no din err music in the bars? Oh dear.

[HereIAm]

Why does this scare mongering report confine itself to the impact on the airport ? What about the impact on hospitals, public transport, high-rise residences and so on ? Those, I think, are where the really adverse impact would be felt. Makes me think this is just meant to create a flutter and raise some more pages of discussions. I am inclined to agree with the poster who said that EGAT would be the first to make an announcement if it was really so critical. Yes, the authorities obviously would make arrangements and not allow the country to be held hostage by some maintenance activity. Lol.