Submarine cables from Norway will provide a number of islands in Krabi Province in southern Thailand, on the shore of the Andaman Sea with new power interconnections. The 33.3 km of Norwegian submarine cables will provide power to Koh Siboya, Koh Pu, Koh Phi Phi Don, Raile Bay and Koh Lanta in Krabi province.
Thailand’s Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has awarded the 8 mill. Euro contract to the Italian-Thai Development Public Company (ITD) and ITD will source the submarine cables from the Nexan cable factory in Halden, Norway.
The work is part of an overall scheme to develop Thailand’s power infrastructure, with specific focus on providing increased capacity and improved security for its islands. This is being driven by Thailand’s rapidly accelerating growth in tourism and subsequent exponential increase in power consumption. PEA anticipates that additional power capacity will continue to grow by 10 to 15 per cent per annum.
The Norwegian cables will be delivered in October 2008. They will have three-core copper conductor and an integrated fibre optic element. A single 3.8km length of cable, with a cross-section of 120mm2, will be used for the Raile Bay crossing. The remainder of the cable, with a cross-section of 185mm2, will be used to create three power links between the islands of Koh Pu, Koh Phi Phi Don and Koh Siboya – total approximate length of 27km – as well as the 2.5km Koh Lanta island interconnection.
