BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
Just a week into the new year and the entire Honiara city was hit by a major power outage yesterday for seven hours.
And, the electricity authority has revealed that the cause of it was vandalism.
The vandalism incident took place around the KGVI and Burns Creek area.
The network fault yesterday morning, caused power outage across whole of Honiara city until power was restored at 12 midday.
Speaking to Island Sun yesterday, Solomon Power, Acting Chief Engineer, Dickson Alamania, said that yesterday’s vandalism incident happened around King George VI and the Burns Creek vicinity.
“Someone tied a stone to the two ends of a rope and threw it onto the 33kV overhead main power supply line to Honiara. That was the fault that caused the unplanned power outage yesterday.
“In these kinds of cases, we have to ensure that we locate and identify the fault. Must certain everything is clear before dealing with it. What also delays us is access to the identified site. That’s what’s delaying our team linemen distribution team on Saturday,” Alamania said.
He said that the 33kV overhead main power supply is the main line that supplies power to Honiara Power House to power the whole City.
“For the Eastern end, Ranadi, there was a brief power outage, power restored at 7 am since the line is not affected,” Alamania said.
He called on the public to respect Solomon Power’s property, as damage to these utilities is an impact on everyone.
“I call on everyone to respect Solomon Power’s properties. When things like this happen, it affects everyone. It was a deliberate act. And it’s ongoing with all powerlines. Otherwise, any future fault might be caused by a different cause,” he said.
Public took to social media yesterday following the power outage to express their fears that the norm of prolonged mass power cuts experienced in 2025 will continue on in 2026.
Honiara city experienced one of its longest power blackouts in years in 2025, following a significant fault on Solomon Power’s 11KV generator at Lungga Power Station.
The unplanned outage, which began on the evening of Thursday, January 16, 2025, left most of the city without power for over 12 hours.
The power failure, which affected the entire city, plunged Honiara into darkness from around 7pm Thursday until early Friday morning.
Among the victims of Honiara’s power outage trend is the business community, which continue to experience financial loss with each unexpected major power cut.
A SICCI statement issued in November 2025 in response to last year’s chronic power cut problem said that the Chamber views reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy as a critical enabler for national development and economic growth.
SICCI views access to stable electricity as not just a utility issue but a fundamental business issue for our manufacturers to compete, for the nation’s construction industry to thrive, and for every SME to grow.
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