The nation will continue to be affected by power surges. The Electric Power Corporation (EPC) has declared that electrical surges are common occurrences.

From the explanation given by the EPC Chief Executive Officer, Faumui Iese Toimoana, corporations and government departments with expensive electrical equipment should already know that there are fluctuations in the power supply.

He said it is the responsibility of these customers to ensure their equipment is well protected.

A week ago, it was revealed that the main X-ray machine which costs millions is now under repair. The reason given for the damage was a surge in electricity supply.

Faumui disputed the allegations made by the Director General of Health Aiono Dr Alec Ekeroma. He said the hospital should have proper surge protection for critical medical equipment. 

"There is no evidence for this," Faumui stated. "The switchboard at the hospital must be well-protected with surge diverters, as surges are always part of the electricity performance characteristics." 

“It is essential to ensure that valuable and life-saving medical equipment, such as X-ray machines, is well protected from voltage fluctuations and electrical surges."

The details of the power outages in the last week provided by Faumui showed that there was a power outage on that day. “One unplanned outage occurred on 7 November, affecting the Hospital Feeder.  The cause was an incident involving an individual electrocuted during construction at the Bluebird Building, which triggered an automatic system shutdown.”

Do the hospital facilities have power surge protectors ensuring the longevity of expensive equipment? In a nation where the power supply fluctuates more than it should, such measures would be considered a necessity.

If this was not done at the hospital, then someone was not doing their job properly. The X-ray machine is not the only expensive equipment at the hospital. There are various scanners, machines that monitor the conditions of patients, life-support machines and many others. Surely, surge protection is in place.

The main reasons for an electrical surge are electrical overload, faulty wiring, lightning strikes, and the restoration of power after a power outage or blackout. These are things outside the control of the EPC, however, certain things such as a good and reliable power grid are.

EPC’s infrastructure is ageing and needs to be replaced especially its transformers. The EPC also needs to put up concrete power poles, unlike the current wooden poles that are likely to be damaged by strong winds. All of this combined contributes to the situations that cause power surges.

In May this year, the electricity supplier recorded 20 outages being reported from various areas in Upolu. A lot of these were attributed to faulty transformers and a few to falling branches, which is another issue the EPC has to deal with.

EPC needs to control the variables such as transformers and infrastructure-related issues. Its generation or power output from the source should be calculated and one main or substation should feed only certain connections. It is agreed that over the years the demand for electricity per household or commercial entity has increased. This should lead to improved infrastructure.

This is what proper planning can avoid. In recent years, fulfilling an election promise of a 20 per cent discount for all customers led to the EPC making a loss of $60 million at the end of 2022. This loss then led to the reinstatement of full costs to government offices and commercial customers.

Domestic customers are still enjoying the discounts and this means that profit is still not being made. This has led to the lack of investment needed to keep the infrastructure up to date.  This needs to change. There will be a far cry if the domestic customers' discount is revoked. The government will not do this especially so close to the elections.

There are things that the EPC can fix and there are variables that are out of their hands.