A massive power blackout hit 14 southern provinces Tuesday night after a transmission failure in Prachuap Khiri Khan cut off supply from the Central Region.
Hat Yai, the biggest city in the South, was lit only by cars on the main streets after Tuesday night's blackout over 14 provinces in the far South.
The outage, described as the biggest in the country's history by an Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) official, hit several key business towns and popular tourist destinations including Hat Yai, Koh Samui and Phuket.
The blackout left southerners, especially those living in the three restive southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, in a state of panic.
Authorities said the power blackout was caused by a faulty high-voltage cable from Ratchaburi to Bang Saphan district in Prachuap Khiri Khan, the main power transmission line from the Central region to the South.
The government assured in a television announcement Tuesday night that the power outage was caused by a problem with the transmission line and was not linked to the southern unrest.
Key business establishments such as hotels and airports, which had their own emergency generators, were spared from the blackout which took place between 6pm and 8pm.
Egat announced at 9.30pm that the power supply had been restored although not to all households.
Sirichai Maingram, president of Egat's Employees Union, said it was the biggest outage the country has ever experienced.
To deal with the blackout, Egat ordered all its power plants in the South to boost electricity generation to full capacity. That included power generation from diesel in Surat Thani province and from fuel oil in Krabi. Despite the increased power supply, brownouts continued in many areas in the South.
Egat said it was negotiating with Malaysia to buy electricity from it to make up for the shortfall while it repairs the power transmission lines in Bang Saphan district.
At present, the South requires 2,500 megawatts of electricity supply while local power plants can generate 2,000 megawatts. The other 500 megawatts are supplied from the Central Plains.
There are currently four power plants - in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Krabi and Surat Thani provinces.
Numchai Lowattanatrakul, governor of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), said the blackout happened in all 14 southern provinces at 7.15pm and it resulted from the problem at the 500-kilowatt power transmission station in Bang Saphan district. As it is a large transmission station, the malfunction caused a total blackout in the South.
He said regional blackouts lasted about half an hour in each area.
PEA officials were deployed to ration power. They also operated mobile generation units to supply power to villages and important locations including hospitals and police stations.
Thana Putarangsi, Egat deputy governor who oversees the power transmission system, said Egat authorities were looking into the cause of the transmission failure Tuesday night.
Pongsak Semson, director and acting president of Airports of Thailand said Hat Yai and Phuket airports were not affected because they were equipped with emergency generators.
However, he said he told the directors of the two airports to be on standby around the clock and to step up security to ensure passengers' safety.
Somchart Pimthanapoonporn, chairman of the Hotel Association in Songkhla's Hat Yai district, said the two-hour outage in Hat Yai had caused a lot of damage to night entertainment operators and hotels even though those venues had their own generators.
"We want the government to come up with measures to prevent blackouts in the future," Mr Somchart said.
Laemthong Hotel owner, Mallika Charoenpanich, said such a massive outage had never taken place in Hat Yai before. She said her guests had to come down to the hotel lobby because it was so hot in their rooms.
"It is a problem state agencies have to review and try to solve," she said.