By Chin Chan and Simon Henderson - May 23, 2013
A massive power outage Wednesday in Southern Vietnam brought rolling
blackouts that lasted for hours to Ho Chi Minh City, the entire
southeastern region of Vietnam and large sections of Phnom Penh.
Vietnam’s state-owned Southern Power Corporation said Wednesday that
the problem occurred around 2 p.m. following the breakdown of a
500-kilovolt transmission line that also supplies Cambodia with
much-needed electricity.
An official at Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), Cambodia’s state-owned
energy provider, who did not give his name because he is not authorized
to speak to the media, said that the blackouts in Phnom Penh were due to
the outages in Vietnam.
“We have only about 30 percent of our normal supply of electricity to
distribute to important areas of the city, but we are trying to fix the
problem” the official said Wednesday afternoon, adding that Vietnam
provides Cambodia with about 40 percent of its national electricity
supply.
At about 2 p.m., the power went out all over Phnom Penh causing the
city’s central water pumping station to stop working, leaving many in
the city without power and water.
By 7 p.m., the entire length of Phnom Penh’s popular riverfront area
lay in darkness, as tourists crowded restaurants drinking cans of beer
by candlelight, while wait staff hung around outside establishments that
were unable to cook food or use running water. The power appeared to
return to central Phnom Penh around 8 p.m.
Keo Sovannarith, deputy director of the Phnom Penh Water Supply
Authority, confirmed the city’s water supply had been hit by the outage.......
Read more http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vietnam-power-failure-hits-phnom-penh-26121/
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