2 Jul 2019

Samoa PM tells utility staff to stay awake and avoid outages

5:37 am on 2 July 2019

Samoa's Prime Minister, Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, has issued an edict to the power company - no outages during the Pacific Games.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi won a silver medal in archery at the 2007 Pacific Games.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi won a silver medal in archery at the 2007 Pacific Games. Photo: Supplied/Samoa Government

Tuila'epa had the utility company in his sights after a power outage delayed an event last Saturday when he was having lunch with Samoa athletes at the Games venue at Tuanaimato.

Speaking at the event, Tuila'epa sent a message to the Electric Power Company staff that they must prevent any power interruption while the Games, which start this weekend, are on.

The prime minister said the company's technical staff should not sleep until the Games are finished.

The utility's chief executive, Tologata Tile Tuimaleali'ifano, issued an apology for the outage saying faulty switch gear was responsible.

He said if another outage occurred the plant at Fiaga power station has the capacity to feed electricity through the national grid.