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Thai Energy Minister Must Quit Over Blackouts: Poll


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Minister must quit over blackouts: poll
The Nation on Sunday

BANGKOK: -- Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal must resign to take responsibility for the blackout in all 14 provinces of the South last Tuesday, according to the majority of respondents in an Abac Poll.

Of the 2,075 respondents, 55.7 per cent said the energy minister should be held responsible for the embarrassing power outage. They said he must also take responsibility for the damage to electricity appliances caused by many blackouts. Another 37 per cent said it should be the Cabinet's responsibility, about 11 per cent said government agencies were to blame while one per cent said the people should take responsibility.

More than 82 per cent of respondents said the blackout affected foreigners' confidence in Thailand, but 17.5 per cent said they did not think so.

Assumption University's Abac Poll released the survey results saying about one-third of respondents thought the whole Cabinet must take responsibility for the incident. Seven per cent of respondents said government agencies should be held responsible for the incident while 2.2 per cent said it was the people's own responsibility.

The survey was conducted among people aged 18 and above in 17 provinces of all regions, between Wednesday and Friday. Some of the respondents live in the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla.

About 60 per cent of the respondents said they were worried about crime, terrorism and other safety problems in the South after the blackout; 31.6 per cent said they felt the same before and after the incident; while about 8 per cent of respondents said they felt nothing.

However, about 4 out of 5 people said they were confident related agencies would be able to improve Thailand's electricity system before the Asean Economic Community while the others said they did not believe so.

Abac Poll assistant director Puntharee Isarangkul na Ayutthaya said the blackout only occurred in one region but caused a lot of damage to individuals, people's lives, electricity appliances and had great impact on trade and services, including restaurants, factories and hotels as well as tourism.

The government should take urgent measures to regain the confidence of investors, and to prepare for the Asean community, she said.

Meanwhile, Pheu Thai deputy spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard said the opposition Democrat Party should not call for Pongsak's resignation, as the power outage was an accident.

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-- The Nation 2013-05-26

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The other paper includes another stat that 60% of respondents are in a state of panic.

I wonder how many of them actually knew about the blackout at the time it occurred, given that only 3 of the 17 provinces are in the south.

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The other paper includes another stat that 60% of respondents are in a state of panic.

I wonder how many of them actually knew about the blackout at the time it occurred, given that only 3 of the 17 provinces are in the south.

Agree with the sentiments of your post!thumbsup.gif

But there are 76 provinces (changwats) in Thailand!

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The other paper includes another stat that 60% of respondents are in a state of panic.

I wonder how many of them actually knew about the blackout at the time it occurred, given that only 3 of the 17 provinces are in the south.

Agree with the sentiments of your post!thumbsup.gif

But there are 76 provinces (changwats) in Thailand!

Yes ... but only 17 are regularly used in these polls.

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Lost my Wi-Fi AP Thanks!

and completely messed up my aquariums filter cycles.

How hard is it to order gas and coal? Oh wait the super markets cant even keep their shelves stocked half the time, so why would we assume you can keep the electrical supply stocked.

Now my house to invest in crap loads UPS to prevent any future issues for your next mess up.

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A blackout like that can also happen in Europe – it did indeed in Southern Scandinavia some years ago. It’s an incident, not somebody’s fault – and it seems from the news like EGAT or authorities acted quickly to compensate with alternative sources and reinstate the power. However, if happens again and again, then someone in charge may not be doing the job well enough.

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Lost my Wi-Fi AP Thanks!

and completely messed up my aquariums filter cycles.

How hard is it to order gas and coal? Oh wait the super markets cant even keep their shelves stocked half the time, so why would we assume you can keep the electrical supply stocked.

Now my house to invest in crap loads UPS to prevent any future issues for your next mess up.

Everyone I know of here uses protecting devices or UPS' for critical electronics.thumbsup.gif

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In these situations the matter needs to be cleared up as quickly as possible, the matter of responsibility lies with the generating authority for that area, the Minister should have issued a directive to this effect and remedial action should have commenced cheesy.gifcheesy.gifcheesy.gifcheesy.gif

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I think a lot of Thais believe that the incident was not accidental but part of the government's campaign to site coal-fired power stations in the broad southern region. Krabi is the guinea pig.

I don't think that the energy minister should resign because of the blackout but he should because he is a dick head.

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A blackout like that can also happen in Europe – it did indeed in Southern Scandinavia some years ago. It’s an incident, not somebody’s fault – and it seems from the news like EGAT or authorities acted quickly to compensate with alternative sources and reinstate the power. However, if happens again and again, then someone in charge may not be doing the job well enough.

Well, it first happened on Koh Samui earlier this year. Now the entire southern region. What do you think may happen next? Preventative Maintenance is not used here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is the attitude.

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The other paper includes another stat that 60% of respondents are in a state of panic.

I wonder how many of them actually knew about the blackout at the time it occurred, given that only 3 of the 17 provinces are in the south.

Agree with the sentiments of your post!thumbsup.gif

But there are 76 provinces (changwats) in Thailand!

Actually, there are 77. whistling.gif

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A blackout like that can also happen in Europe – it did indeed in Southern Scandinavia some years ago. It’s an incident, not somebody’s fault – and it seems from the news like EGAT or authorities acted quickly to compensate with alternative sources and reinstate the power. However, if happens again and again, then someone in charge may not be doing the job well enough.

Well, it first happened on Koh Samui earlier this year. Now the entire southern region. What do you think may happen next? Preventative Maintenance is not used here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is the attitude.

I live on Koh Samui, so I have experienced both – some areas of Koh Samui are well known for regular black outs, we normally had them weekly, as the demand for power rose to fast. Due to regular maintenance back in November 2012 – yes, they do perform that – of the major underwater supply cable, it shorted after restart. Unfortunately before the already ordered, new third supply cable was installed, which took place in March. Yes, they did have an upgrade in mind, since the demand for power raised a bit faster, than planned in 2005. Unfortunately the original old power cable can only cover some 15% of the demand, which caused the island to be limited with power supply, delivered a few hours a day for each sector. After some three days repair, the island was back to 70-80%, plus additional help from 50, 300KW mobile power units.
The thing is, that when a large part of the grid fails, it cannot be instantly restarted. All sectors has to be switched off and back in, slowly one by one, as the power plants cannot cope with such an instant huge demand. Therefore it always takes time, before everyone has power back again. I believe we were last at Samui, having the power back only after midnight.
Samui 2012 was a limited island incident – but bad enough, when you live there and do not have your own diesel generator, as many of the major resorts, where some of the guests never realized there were a black out – the provinces now at South, hopefully a single incident, like it both can and do happens all over the World. Back in 2003 we had a major black out in Southern Scandinavia, due to a fault on a Swedish power station, resulting in dragging two more Swedish power stations down. Denmark could not cope with the instant huge extra demand for Sweden, so everything went black – took four hours or more, before all sectors were back on the grid.
What may happen next?
The solar activity may cause the power grid – and much more – to fail later this year or next.
Will that be somebody’s fault?
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The other paper includes another stat that 60% of respondents are in a state of panic.

I wonder how many of them actually knew about the blackout at the time it occurred, given that only 3 of the 17 provinces are in the south.

Agree with the sentiments of your post!thumbsup.gif

But there are 76 provinces (changwats) in Thailand!

Actually, there are 77. whistling.gif

The new one next to Nong Khai ???

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A blackout like that can also happen in Europe – it did indeed in Southern Scandinavia some years ago. It’s an incident, not somebody’s fault – and it seems from the news like EGAT or authorities acted quickly to compensate with alternative sources and reinstate the power. However, if happens again and again, then someone in charge may not be doing the job well enough.

Well, it first happened on Koh Samui earlier this year. Now the entire southern region. What do you think may happen next? Preventative Maintenance is not used here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is the attitude.

The Koh Samui problem is directly related to the local authorities. The supply cables to the Koh are inadequate and development has pushed the ability to service it to the limit. The lcoals have to decide if they are willing to pay for the infrastructure for their communities. The same for Phuket. For years, the local authorities were warned/advised. Both Koh Samui and Phuket are Democrat strongholds. Would some posters blame the Democrats for this ineptitude? Surely, we can all see that the root cause are the corrupt local officials and the unwillingness/inability of the central government to intervene. Yes, the PTP has some responsibility, but blaming the minister allows the corrupt incompetent local officials off the hook. When Abhisit was in power, Phuket had its daily power outages. I wouldn't blame the Abhisit admin for those outages anymore than I would blame the current government. Egat's board has some responsibility for not speaking out.

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The other paper includes another stat that 60% of respondents are in a state of panic.

I wonder how many of them actually knew about the blackout at the time it occurred, given that only 3 of the 17 provinces are in the south.

Agree with the sentiments of your post!thumbsup.gif

But there are 76 provinces (changwats) in Thailand!

Actually, there are 77. whistling.gif

The new one next to Nong Khai ???

That's the one: "Bueng Kan" or "Bung Kan".

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A blackout like that can also happen in Europe – it did indeed in Southern Scandinavia some years ago. It’s an incident, not somebody’s fault – and it seems from the news like EGAT or authorities acted quickly to compensate with alternative sources and reinstate the power. However, if happens again and again, then someone in charge may not be doing the job well enough.

Well, it first happened on Koh Samui earlier this year. Now the entire southern region. What do you think may happen next? Preventative Maintenance is not used here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is the attitude.

The Koh Samui problem is directly related to the local authorities. The supply cables to the Koh are inadequate and development has pushed the ability to service it to the limit. The lcoals have to decide if they are willing to pay for the infrastructure for their communities. The same for Phuket. For years, the local authorities were warned/advised. Both Koh Samui and Phuket are Democrat strongholds. Would some posters blame the Democrats for this ineptitude? Surely, we can all see that the root cause are the corrupt local officials and the unwillingness/inability of the central government to intervene. Yes, the PTP has some responsibility, but blaming the minister allows the corrupt incompetent local officials off the hook. When Abhisit was in power, Phuket had its daily power outages. I wouldn't blame the Abhisit admin for those outages anymore than I would blame the current government. Egat's board has some responsibility for not speaking out.

Almost right about Samui. Up until recently we were governed by Surat Thani and most of the taxes raised here were diverted to the mainland. Now that Samui has been granted city status there has been many ongoing infrastructure improvements.

BTW the submarine power cable problem had been identified and a second cable was near completion when the old failed. The repair delay was due to the inherent problems involved with submarine cables. BTW these (now) 2 cables lead directly to Khanom power station, located close to the Nakhon Si/ Surat Thani border, and even closer to Samui.

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The other paper includes another stat that 60% of respondents are in a state of panic.

I wonder how many of them actually knew about the blackout at the time it occurred, given that only 3 of the 17 provinces are in the south.

also 1 per cent said that the people should take responability ( i wonder if that was the people that we being blamed lol )

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27-05-2013

EGAT: "Blackout in 14 southern provinces caused by lightning at transmission tower"
Deputy EGAT Governor Thana Putarungsi, on Sunday, led a group of news reporters to inspect the damages at a transmission tower in Phetchaburi Province, which was caused by lightning earlier this week.
Mr. Thana stated that the damages at the tower led to the widespread blackout in 14 southern provinces as they hampered the transmission of electricity from the central region to the South.
He added that EGAT will add more power cables to help with the electricity transmission in order to cope with rising power demand in the southern region, which is estimated to grow 6 percent per year.
In addition, EGAT is planning to proceed with the construction of new power plants, as stated in the country’s Power Development Plan 2010.
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A blackout like that can also happen in Europe – it did indeed in Southern Scandinavia some years ago. It’s an incident, not somebody’s fault – and it seems from the news like EGAT or authorities acted quickly to compensate with alternative sources and reinstate the power. However, if happens again and again, then someone in charge may not be doing the job well enough.

Well, it first happened on Koh Samui earlier this year. Now the entire southern region. What do you think may happen next? Preventative Maintenance is not used here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is the attitude.

The Koh Samui problem is directly related to the local authorities. The supply cables to the Koh are inadequate and development has pushed the ability to service it to the limit. The lcoals have to decide if they are willing to pay for the infrastructure for their communities. The same for Phuket. For years, the local authorities were warned/advised. Both Koh Samui and Phuket are Democrat strongholds. Would some posters blame the Democrats for this ineptitude? Surely, we can all see that the root cause are the corrupt local officials and the unwillingness/inability of the central government to intervene. Yes, the PTP has some responsibility, but blaming the minister allows the corrupt incompetent local officials off the hook. When Abhisit was in power, Phuket had its daily power outages. I wouldn't blame the Abhisit admin for those outages anymore than I would blame the current government. Egat's board has some responsibility for not speaking out.

Almost right about Samui. Up until recently we were governed by Surat Thani and most of the taxes raised here were diverted to the mainland. Now that Samui has been granted city status there has been many ongoing infrastructure improvements.

BTW the submarine power cable problem had been identified and a second cable was near completion when the old failed. The repair delay was due to the inherent problems involved with submarine cables. BTW these (now) 2 cables lead directly to Khanom power station, located close to the Nakhon Si/ Surat Thani border, and even closer to Samui.

Koh Samui have now 4 underwater cables. The first original 15MW; A newer one which failed and is not working at all; The 90MW (from 2005 or 2006) with the problem last November; A brand new from March this year at around some 150MW.

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