By 10:02 am on Saturday, at the Ha Tien 110kV substation and a similar 110kV substation on Phu Quoc Island, engineers have completed the testing of an 110kV submarine power cable system electrically linking Phu Quoc Island with the rest of the country.

The Southern Power Corp (EVN SPC) and its partners are completing necessary testing and calibration so that the electricity grid of the island can be completely linked with the national grid before the coming Tet (lunar New Year).

Electricity has long been a main obstacle to the island’s development, as its people have nothing to choose but use power generated from diesel-fueled thermal plants.

Therefore, local residents have to either suffer costly power prices, averagely priced at VND5,060 per kWh, or rely on diesel generators to light up their homes and power their TV sets.

In some communes like Ganh Dau, power price is VND25,000 per kWh, 16 times higher than what people on the mainland pay.

The expensive power costs have hampered households on the island from accessing popular electrical household appliances. It also restricts local businesses from investing and expanding their production facilities. Phu Quoc Airport alone loses tens of billions annually due to costly electricity.

But all of the difficulties will vanish within days to come.

From now on, the people and businesses in Phu Quoc will be able to use stable power output transmitted via the national grid with the same electricity bill, some VND 1,508.85 per kWh on average, as any other locality across Vietnam.

This is thanks to the $93.4 million project to install the 55.8-km submarine 110KV cable system, conducted by Italy-based Prysmian Powerlink.

The installation of submarine cable is made fully automatic by specialized ship Enterprise Cable based on the global positioning system (GPS) for full precision.

The scattering and burying of cable is pulled simultaneously through undersea robot systems and high-pressure water nozzles blowing sand on seabed to create deep trenches as required.

The installation officially started in Phu Quoc on December 5 and it took the Italian ship 17 days to get to Ha Tien with the average installation rate of 3.2 km per day at the depth of over 1.5 meters below the seabed.

According to the original plan, the submarine cable project will be fully operational in the third quarter of 2014, but Prysmian Powerlink SRL contractor has completed the work six months earlier than planned.