Tens of thousands of homes and resorts on Phu Quoc were thrown into a sudden blackout after the island’s Ha Tien–Phu Quoc undersea power cable broke on Saturday, triggering one of the most disruptive outages in recent years.
An Giang Power Company said the break happened near the Ha Tien shoreline and was likely caused by a contractor working on a coastal road project who drove piles into the electricity safety corridor. The impact tore through the 110kV cable supplying the island.
Engineers rushed to reroute electricity from the Nam Phu Quoc 110/22kV substation, restoring power for about 17,400 customers, including hospitals, water plants, telecom services and several residential areas. But more than 12,000 households in northern Phu Quoc remained without electricity as of Sunday.
Phu Quoc relies on two undersea cables but they are not yet linked in a closed loop, meaning a single incident can knock out power across large parts of the island.
The outage comes as Vietnam’s most famous island destination enters its busy tourism season. Home to nearly 160,000 people, Phu Quoc welcomed 6.5 million visitors in the first nine months of the year, generating more than VND31 trillion ($1.17 billion) in revenue.
Source: VN Express