Brief Blackout In The South Causes Confusion: Thailand

[badmedicine]

According to Deputy EGAT governor Thana Phuttarangsi, due to the region’s excessive demand for electricity supply,

Mr Thana pointed out that its electricity grid was unable to keep up with rising demand in the southern region, where major tourist destinations such as Phuket and Krabi are located. He noted that the extensive blackout is the biggest outage in the past 30 years.

You see, there's your culprit. It's the consumers' fault - and not just any consumers, but those greedy foreigners. You'll also note that no one at EGAT was to blame and the system worked perfectly when it

Once the system detected overloads, it automatically disconnected circuits to protect the power lines.

Everything's as it should be, but you know, the public really need to use a bit less, especially the tourists.

[laislica]

According to Deputy EGAT governor Thana Phuttarangsi, due to the region’s excessive demand for electricity supply,

Mr Thana pointed out that its electricity grid was unable to keep up with rising demand in the southern region, where major tourist destinations such as Phuket and Krabi are located. He noted that the extensive blackout is the biggest outage in the past 30 years.

You see, there's your culprit. It's the consumers' fault - and not just any consumers, but those greedy foreigners. You'll also note that no one at EGAT was to blame and the system worked perfectly when it

>Once the system detected overloads, it automatically disconnected circuits to protect the power lines.

Everything's as it should be, but you know, the public really need to use a bit less, especially the tourists.

But joking aside - Spot on, we should all use less.

Our house , not so far from Bangkok was built with no water heaters, even in December the water is only a bit fresh and perfectly acceptable.

I notice that Bangkok hotels all have hot water in the bathrooms - unnecessary IMO.

We use the minimum of aircon and keep doors closed. At night our bedroom is at 26 or 27 °C, (Strange how visiting Thais put the aircon in their room at 24°C and then choose a thick duvet rather than the light weight cover available.)

We got rid of the water boiler that keeps the water just about boiling temperature all the time.

Now we wait a minute or two for the water to boil, only heating enough for use and it saves an amazing amount of power. So many people fill the kettle with up to 2 litres of water to make a cup of tea which actually needs about a third of a litre maximum.

All lighting is either fluorescent or low energy bulbs.

[BKS22]

I was in HatYai last night during the black-out. I will admit is was kind of eerie seeing the entire city in darkness. But my girl and I still enjoyed a nice dinner via candlelight at a restaurant near Tesco. Was romantic for the hour the power was out....LOL

[ResX]

Two things that I can share. Firstly there is a sign that the demand capacity has come close to the available generating power. This is very fundamental problem that requires new genrating units. The second problem is something to do with dispatch error. Line oveload cannot be associated with any other reason other that dispatch error. Unless such overload as a result of something else. I can't see any of such so far.

This is my take. The authority should shade loads at various areas in the South not more than required to sustain the grid, rather than feed in the load from distance area as they did. In the above scenario, any attempt to feed in power from external to the South sub grid will increase the risk of total black out at the South. In fact the risk becomes essentially 100% once one of the connected transmission lines exceeds 50% of its rated capacity. Bare in mind the other "redundant line has already be loaded at close to 50% too". Once a line fails, the power transfers to the the redundant line. The redundant line might turn overload too. So both lines gone!

Hot ambient temperature may be one of the factors. It probably minor but cannot be discounted. The transmission line load carrying capacity reduces badly as ambient air temperature goes up. The grid dispatchers might fail to put this into account as they loaded up the lines to reach the point of no return. The rest is history...

Edited May 22, 2013 by ResX

[Mosha]

"All provinces south of Surat Thani were affected, including Chumphon, Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Narathiwat, Pattani, Phang Nga, Phatthalung, Phuket, Ranong, Satun, Songkhla, Surat Thani, Trang and Yala."

Geography isn't the reporters forte', is it?

[MaxLee]

Everything is Bangkok, only Bangkok... and sh***tload on the rest of Thailand...

[OzMick]

Seems to be a system control fault, as they have allowed line current to approach maximum while there was generating capacity in the south not being used. When the small generating plant in Supan Buri developed a fault and had to shut down or reduce load, the line current north of there reached trip point as it increased to make up that input.

7pm would be peak load period, and that peak will only get higher as tourist numbers increase later in the year. The new plant coming on-line in April seems to be too little too late - but nothing unusual here.

[robertson468]

We are into one of those cycles of the sun that causes disturbances. Does that have anything to do with this blackout?

Whose son was that then?

[Phronesis]

[Soutpeel]

The root cause of this blackout is very obvious....its the PTP's fault...after all they supplied those computer tablets to all the school children...hence increasing the demand for power....bad PM YK...

[tominbkk]

Everything is Bangkok, only Bangkok... and sh***tload on the rest of Thailand...

How much taxes are collected in BKK in ratio with the rest fo the country. Then is that ratio similar to the amount of services BKK enjoys compared to the rest of the country?

[Mosha]

Everything is Bangkok, only Bangkok... and sh***tload on the rest of Thailand...

How much taxes are collected in BKK in ratio with the rest fo the country. Then is that ratio similar to the amount of services BKK enjoys compared to the rest of the country?

What the heck has tax to do with it. In Ranong we have meters, what the meter reads we pay. I suggest Bangkok do the same.

[Thai at Heart]

Two things that I can share. Firstly there is a sign that the demand capacity has come close to the available generating power. This is very fundamental problem that requires new genrating units. The second problem is something to do with dispatch error. Line oveload cannot be associated with any other reason other that dispatch error. Unless such overload as a result of something else. I can't see any of such so far.

This is my take. The authority should shade loads at various areas in the South not more than required to sustain the grid, rather than feed in the load from distance area as they did. In the above scenario, any attempt to feed in power from external to the South sub grid will increase the risk of total black out at the South. In fact the risk becomes essentially 100% once one of the connected transmission lines exceeds 50% of its rated capacity. Bare in mind the other "redundant line has already be loaded at close to 50% too". Once a line fails, the power transfers to the the redundant line. The redundant line might turn overload too. So both lines gone!

Hot ambient temperature may be one of the factors. It probably minor but cannot be discounted. The transmission line load carrying capacity reduces badly as ambient air temperature goes up. The grid dispatchers might fail to put this into account as they loaded up the lines to reach the point of no return. The rest is history...

A largely unregulated construction boom with no planning is probably the cause.

[Thai at Heart]

Everything is Bangkok, only Bangkok... and sh***tload on the rest of Thailand...

How much taxes are collected in BKK in ratio with the rest fo the country. Then is that ratio similar to the amount of services BKK enjoys compared to the rest of the country?

Bangkok's tax take is skewed because every exporter in the country has a reporting office there.

By now Rayong should be paradise, but alas, all money flows to Bangkok.

[TheWalkingMan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PAxIrNys9M

[ResX]

Two things that I can share. Firstly there is a sign that the demand capacity has come close to the available generating power. This is very fundamental problem that requires new genrating units. The second problem is something to do with dispatch error. Line oveload cannot be associated with any other reason other that dispatch error. Unless such overload as a result of something else. I can't see any of such so far.

This is my take. The authority should shade loads at various areas in the South not more than required to sustain the grid, rather than feed in the load from distance area as they did. In the above scenario, any attempt to feed in power from external to the South sub grid will increase the risk of total black out at the South. In fact the risk becomes essentially 100% once one of the connected transmission lines exceeds 50% of its rated capacity. Bare in mind the other "redundant line has already be loaded at close to 50% too". Once a line fails, the power transfers to the the redundant line. The redundant line might turn overload too. So both lines gone!

Hot ambient temperature may be one of the factors. It probably minor but cannot be discounted. The transmission line load carrying capacity reduces badly as ambient air temperature goes up. The grid dispatchers might fail to put this into account as they loaded up the lines to reach the point of no return. The rest is history...

A largely unregulated construction boom with no planning is probably the cause.

Very likely.

[jackr]

Dunno why folks are so up in arms, it was only out for a few hours and got put right pretty sharpish. Thailand is a developing country after all, give em a break.

It was actually nice to eat by candlelight, plus no music or traffic lights. It should happen more often.

[ResX]

Dunno why folks are so up in arms, it was only out for a few hours and got put right pretty sharpish. Thailand is a developing country after all, give em a break.

It was actually nice to eat by candlelight, plus no music or traffic lights. It should happen more often.

I think the main issue is can the authorities make the grid works better with minimum cost.

Edited May 23, 2013 by ResX