What happened out there?
Residents of Metro Manila and large parts of Luzon were stunned when the power went out from early to mid-afternoon the other day.
As expected, wild rumors ran rife. The brownout was in preparation for next week’s elections, making cheating easier. This is known as the ‘No-El’ scenario, and it usually pops up every time elections are near and power goes out in some areas. Still, there are those who believe that the massive power outage is somehow related to the elections to be held Monday. Or a no-elections scenario as painted by some.
It was therefore a self-inflicted feeling of déjà vu to read in the papers or hear and see over radio-TV a scenario that has never taken place. Of course elections will be held as scheduled on Monday. The electorate will not allow elections to be stopped for any reason because voters have been anticipating the activity that takes place every three years with much excitement.
In fact, the reason for the Luzon-wide brownout was more mundane. A transmission line tripped, according to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla. Or five power plants went offline, according to another explanation from the government. Whatever the reason, there surely was no need to panic.
As long as blackouts do not happen with any degree of regularity, there should be no concern among residents of the affected areas that something suspicious is afoot.
The loss of power that affected millions of consumers in Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Quezon is different from the regular brownouts now occurring in parts of Mindanao.
In the big island in the South, it’s a simple question of supply and demand. The demand is far greater than the available supply, thus the need to regulate the flow of electricity to all consumers, whether individual or corporate.
While the Philippine population is generally young, there are still millions of us who remember the dark last year of the first Aquino administration. By 1992, brownouts had become a regular part of our existence. There was not much we could do about it, or so we were told.
Obsolete power plants
The Cory Aquino administration said that the aging power plants throughout the country were to blame. They were falling apart as most had outlived their expected operating life spans.
It took the Ramos administration that followed to come up with a quick fix-it. Power barges were brought in, despite the higher cost of power that they supplied. While far from being the ideal solution, there was little choice at that time. Then to ensure that the succeeding decade would not suffer the blackouts during the Cory Aquino years, the Ramos administration authorized the National Power Corporation (Napocor) to enter into Co-generation, Build-Operate-Transfer and Build-Operate-Own deals with private parties and electric cooperatives to quickly build power plants. The generation problem was solved but up to now the country’s consumers and taxpayers continue to pay for the great costs of these BOT and BOO plants. This, among other causes, have driven the price of electricity up so that our per KwH price is among the highest in the world.
What’s happening in Mindanao today is similar to what happened to the entire country in 1991 and 1992. A lack of foresight on the part of the national government caused a power crisis.
Again, it would seem that the government wants to resort to band aid solutions to the crisis in Mindanao. There have been proposals to bring back power barges to deliver the electricity that the big island so desperately needs.
Perhaps the government can take a longer view of the country’s power needs, which will only continue to grow over the next years and decades as the population likewise increases. There will be an even greater need for power if the economy continues to grow at its current pace.
Source:-
http://manilatimes.net/index/index.p...ened-out-there
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when the powers gone!
Originally Posted by Michael Parnham
