Officials view Bt4-bn Samui power cable

The Provincial Electricity Authority is spending Bt4 billion to improve distribution reliability on Samui Island.

Padung Banjongsilp, deputy governor of the PEA, and executives of the authority yesterday led local and Bangkok media, chiefs of Samui and Pha-ngan islands and the president of the Tourism and Hospitality Association to inspect the 115-kilovolt submarine cable from Nakhon Si Thammarat's Khanom district to Surat Thani's Samui district.

The PEA had distributed electricity to people from a diesel generator on the island since 1961. Since demand was surging, the authority in December 1987 laid the first 33kV submarine cable from the mainland to the island 23 kilometres away.

In 1995, the PEA connected Samui with the first 115kV circuit, followed by the second circuit and two substations in 2006. Both circuits can serve 128-megawatt demand.

To serve increasing consumption in Pha-ngan, a 33kV submarine cable was installed in December 1996 to connect the 14.6km from that island from Samui.

Now, demand in Samui has grown to 100MW, so a third circuit is being constructed along with a substation. Already 37.5km of the 54km distance has been completed. After it goes online next month, it is expected to meet 200MW demand on both islands for at least 10 years.