EPC Warns More Power Outages Expected

By Lagi Keresoma/

Apia, Samoa – 26 February 2025 – The Minister of the Electric Power Corporation, Olo Fiti Vaai has confirmed that the public will experience more power cuts in the coming days as the corporation undertakes urgent action to resolve the problem and restore a stable electricity supply.

The power outages affected the whole of Upolu Island last Sunday and last night and lasted over ten hours in many areas.

The public have vented their anger on social media and even overseas Samoans have questioned if Samoa has gone back to the early nineties after two major cyclones caused major electricity supply cuts. Image of a blackout at the Motootua National Hospital last night have been widely distributed.

The public have been frustrated by the lack of pre-warning and any explanation from EPC and many complained about the damage to electronic appliances at home.

EPC just issued a public apology today “to all customers for the recent power outages especially the Blackouts experienced on Sunday 23rd and last night Tuesday 25th February 2025.

“We understand the inconvenience caused by these disruptions and assure the public that we are taking urgent action to resolve the issue and restore a stable electricity supply.”

Part of the major power station at Fiaga.

The problem identified
EPC said the outages have been caused by a fault in the underground high-voltage cable between Siusega and Fuluasou, which is EPC’s core transmission line from the main power station at Fiaga to substations for power distribution.

The power outages have been used as a political football by Opposition MPs in parliament today.

Pressured by these negative references, the Minister, Olo Fiti Vaai told the media after parliament that he did instruct EPC management to cut the whole electricity supply in Upolu last Sunday.

He explained that the area where the underground high-voltage cables lie at Tuanaimato, are covered with water and the cables were installed underground without proper insulation plastic pipes to cover the cables that have been affected by water.

Olo believes that if the company that installed the cables in 2012 had done a thorough job, it would not have come to what the country is experiencing now, and he intends to find out the company and why they were awarded the contract.

He believes there were good reasons why the previous Government opted for underground installation but now seems to also have issues.

EPC’s Mitigation Plan.

Resolving the problem
To resolve this issue, EPC said it will begin construction of an overhead power line starting this Friday 28th Feb 2025.

This project involves:

• Replacing the 2km underground cable from Siusega to Fuluasou with a new 1.7km overhead line to improve system stability.
• Decommissioning the faulty 2km underground section while maintaining the underground redundancy line
• The new overhead line will also be from a new route near Faleata Golf Course

EPC said these measures of its mitigation plan to restore a stable and consistent power supply for all customers.

“Our technical teams are working around the clock to implement these solutions while monitoring the system closely to prevent further disruptions,” said EPC.

Request for more generators
Meanwhile Cabinet has approved to buy two more diesel generators as stand by and these will cost $5 million excluding the freight and duty costs.

Olo rubbished the HRPP leader Tuilaepa’s claim that the generator currently used by EPC are second hand ones bought by Olo from his friends and is the reason why Samoa is having issues with the power.

There are also reports that one of the new diesel generators in Salelologa, Savaii is out of service after it was allegedly sabotaged and affected the consistency of supply on the island.

Olo said when the new Government took office in 2021, they bought 4 new generators, two for Savaii and two for Upolu, but still need two more.

“EPC was operating on two old generators and as the Minister of EPC, I made the requests and was granted the approval of 4 new generators,” he told the media.

Public should have been well informed
Olo admitted EPC should have kept the public informed. But he said that the power cut last Sunday was sudden and took time to locate the problem and stabilise the power supply.

“The country should have been well informed before and I apologise for what happened on Sunday and last night, and the public will be informed of expected power cuts in the future,” he said.

He confirmed that the public can expect more power cuts as the Corporations technical team work on restructuring the whole connecting electric cables from Fiaga to Fuluasou and require the power supply to be turned off.

“We ask for the public’s patience and understanding as it is not easy work faced by the workers.”