Live in the Philippines

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Things are getting worse

Philippine Progress / by

Overall, I agree with my friend, Dave Starr.  He wrote recently about how things have improved a lot in the Philippines in the past few years that he has lived here.  Having lived in Mindanao for 10 years now, I can attest that things have improved drastically here in the past decade.  Roads, Internet, all kind of infrastructure is so much better than it was juts ten years ago, it is often unbelievable to me when I see the changes.

There is one area of infrastructure that has gotten worse recently, though.  I have written several times in the past several months about the brownout situation here.  Firstly, let me explain what a brownout is.  Many newer readers, those not so familiar with the Philippines might think it means that the voltage goes lower, causing lights to burn less brightly than normal.  I made a comment on Facebook recently about brownouts and somebody mentioned about lights going dim.  No, I explained… I mean blackouts!  Yes, here in the Philippines they generally call it a brownout when there is no power at all, so that is what I am talking about.

Mindanao is in particularly bad shape in 2010 when it comes to the electricity situation.  Other parts of the Philippines have power problems too, but not nearly like what is happening in Mindanao.  Many parts of Mindanao have no power 12 hours a day now – 7 days per week!  Can you imagine living with electricity only half the time?  That is just normal here in 2010.

Here in Davao City, where I live, we have been pretty luck so far this year.  Brownouts in Davao have been limited to only 2 hours at a time, and usually only about 2 times per week.  About a week ago, that changed, though.  Davao Light and Power has extended rotating brownouts to 3 hours now, and we are generally have daily brownouts now – every day.  From time to time, we will make it through a full day without a brownout, but that is generally no more than once per week.  So,  we are not putting up with 3 hours per day, at least 6 days per week in Davao.  Hey, I guess I feel a bit guilty complaining about that when people just up the road from us are sweating through 12 hours of brownouts, but what I am getting at is that in the past week or so, it has become obvious that the power situation is getting worse instead of better.

Why is Davao getting fewer brownouts than any other part of Mindanao?  Thankfully, Davao Light and Power has a Power Generating plant powered by diesel, located in Bajada.  I don’t think that any other cities in Mindanao have such a facility.  That Generating plant is able to supply Davao City with an extra 35 Mw of power per day.  Also, over the past several months, the Sibulan Hydro plant has been coming online in Davao, which will supply Davao with a total of about another 30 Mw of power daily.  We are already getting about 12 Mw from Sibulan, but by the end of May the final parts of the Sibulan facility will be online, and provide an additional 18 Mw over what we have been getting.  So, it is expected that by the end of this month, the brownout situation in Davao might ease up a bit.  Why are these facilities providing power only for Davao instead of for all of Mindanao, or to all of the Mindanao Grid?  Because these were private investments by Aboitiz, owner of Davao Light and Power.  If power is sufficient in Davao, this power could be sold to the grid, but since there is a shortage in Davao, Davao Light will power Davao first, since it is Dabawenyos who funded the projects through their electricity purchases.

One of the problems right now, in addition to having longer and more frequent brownouts, is that we are currently in the midst of the summer here.  So, it is hotter, and drier than normal.  Thus, at the time when power is most needed, it is also at it’s worst in many years.

The latest word is that if normal levels of rainfall return to the island soon, we can expect out power situation to become normal by sometime in December 2010.  Until then, we will be experiencing brownouts.  In the past month or so, we are starting to see some rain activity in Davao, but nothing near normal, so we can only hope that the rainfall will increase, and get our lakes and rivers on the island back to normal levels, which would ease greatly our power shortages.  Until then… we’ll have to keep sweating!

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Comments

  1. Last trip in Feb. we had brownouts every day in every city we traveled in Mindanao. It was interesting to see how the pinoys adapt to it so easily…obviously used to it. If that happened in the USA people would be rioting in the streets. Was talking to a older pinoy about it, both agreed the solution would be to build nuclear plants….of which he said “can you imagine pinoys running a nuclear facility?…that frightens me more than never having electricity again ‘!!! …we both had a good laugh !

    • Hi brian – I don’t mind the brownouts if they happen at certain times of day. In the morning, or early afternoon, I just go to the mall where they have power (generator at least). If it is late afternoon, it can interrupt cooking or a family dinner which can be a pain. At night, it can get hot and make it difficult to sleep. Overall, though, I am getting used to them.

      I used to shudder at the thought of nuclear in the Philippines, but I have come to believe it would be the best solution.

      • Hi Bob;
        I must fully agree that since 1995 when I really started living up here on Luzon; things have improved 100 fold. I also agree that the rolling brownouts we experience are a slight pain. Have I been here too long, that even my wife commented that I don’t get upset with them anymore?
        I remember in 1996 I had to drive to Mega Manila just to use an ATM. And my purok is going to get running water this year, Wow it’s just like 1957 on Cape Cod (MA.) when we got water at our summerhouse. If I can just live long enough to see trash pickup in my Barangay, I’ll be able say, “See, the Y2K bug is finally gone from here”. (lol)

          • Brian:
            As one who lives in a hurricane prone portion of the U.S., I must state that you are dead wrong. On several occacsions as a result of storms and exceptionally cold winters, we lost power for several days in a major metropolitan area. I can confirm no rioting in the streets occurred.

            • Hi David – For a hurricane it would be understandable. But, if a place in the US had daily brownouts for 12 hours per day for no reason like a hurricane, and it went on for months and months with no end… I think Brian is 100% dead on. Americans would never put up with it. That’s just my guess, and is no more valid than yours, though.

  2. Bob,
    What you need is the professor from Gilligan’s Island to build you a stationary bike that generates your power. That way, you can be lean & mean & have all of the power you need. For internet connectivity, how about two coconuts & a string?

    Having been there/done that when brown-outs were an almost daily thing in Davao – 5 to 8 hours/day – I do sympathize with your situation. Not knowing much about computer-related technology, I wonder if there is a satellite system for internet connectivity that could be powered with a generator?
    Mike2

    • Hi Mike – Thanks for the sympathy! There is satellite internet available. It’s about $1,500 per month, and not so fast. I think I’ll go a few hours per day without! 😆

  3. Bob any reason you are not expanding your articles to new subjects which are so plentiful. It seems to me that many articles you have written recently are just retreads of things you have ready written about in detail in just the past few of months. There are so many subject areas you have expertise on that could be covered I’m sure. Just a suggestion so don’t get bent out of shape.

    • Richard – I write what I feel like writing about and consider relevant. There are millions of things to write about, I choose the ones that I want to write. No reason other than that.

      • Great answer I mean who are your loyal readers to argue with you Bob. You’re the man. LOL

        • Let’s see, Richard… if I wrote about a bunch of stuff that I had absolutely no interest in, the articles would probably be pretty uninformative and boring. I guess that if you don’t like what I write about there are millions of other websites out there…. 😉

          • Hi Paul – It’s good to diversify. You haven’t been writing enough boring articles lately, so you need to expand your horizons and put out more boring stuff! Diversity is a good thing, you know!

    • I hate bullies, esp. the coward ones. Richard, get a life! Mindanao is already suffering for brownouts, please don’t add to the misery.

      BTW, Bob, when we went to Nigeria last Xmas, same thing happened. Depending where you are in the country, there were times that it’s 24 hrs of brownout. I couldn’t wait to get back to Lagos/VI where there’s reliable generator. 🙂

      I used to complain living here in the island, but at that time, I couldn’t wait to come back.

  4. Hi Bob – I’m not going to compare our provincial life with that in Davao when it comes to brownouts. That would be gloating.

    The occassional ones we do have may roll through quickly, but they still affect the internet – seems like the rolling brownouts follow the internet path. So, even though there’s curriente, there’s no e-work to be done. Have to go outside in the heat and work on the property!

    I can feel your tears with my story, but I’d rather just have a brownout completely than have power and not be able to enjoy it. 😆

    • Hi Paul – I can’t really complain about the Internet, as long as we have kuryente, the Internet has been good! Speaking of kuryente… the power just came back on… we’ve been without power all morning! 😯

  5. I think the whole country has to go dark before the word blackout is used – oh there’s one generator? Then it’s still a brownout.

    We must be insulated, Gensan hasn’t had a brownout in months – NOT!

    Most of the locals keep saying to just wait until after the election. We’ll see if they’re right.

  6. Hey BOB
    Should I bring my portable generator from J-ville Fl with me.
    It would probale get a better work out over there then just hurricane season over here. Oh yea where con you buy one over there?
    Keep writing on what you feel the personnel touch in an article always keeps a story interesting and allows readers to connect in a personnel way.:)

    • Hi Bruce – The only downside on bringing a generator is that the voltage is probably not right. I don’t know for sure, though… does your generator do 220V? If so, hey, bring it along, you won’t regret it! 😆

    • You can find generators here at most hardware stores – although we were sold out of generators and UPS’s here in Gensan for about 6 weeks recently. If you are shipping stuff anyway, I would definitely include it. Most of the gens you find here are cheap Chinese models – if you find a Robin or Honda expect to pay a premium. At least that’s how it is here in Gensan, which I would classify as a small to mid-size city.

      • I’m in luck everyone my genator has two 220 volt out let YEE HAA I’ll Have some juice. Come on over the next brown out cold beer and soda here.:)

      • Gary: Can you get home generators there? You know the ones that can sevice the whole house and for about how much? Gotta have a cold beverage and fan at the ready.

          • Bruce;
            Bob is right about the cost. Buy a named brand that has service reps here in the Philippines. Honda is one that does. My Honda gen. will run everything in my house, including 2 refs, a large freezer and all appliances. Here’s what it won’t do. My shower/hot water heaters, my air/cons, and the pump for my well. Other than that I’m back to normal during a brownout within two minutes. I’ve never had a warm beer, except at the sari-sari next-door.

              • Thanks for the info guys. Senior when I get setteled in subic I’ll get with you. Heck mancave, generators, connoisseur on liquid beverages. I Never new a 52 yr old guy could have a mentor? Or is it more like a traffic cop guiding me in the right direction.
                I must be brain dead to much dfm in those boilerooms and JP-5 in the drinking water. BOB you haven’t lived until you have drank a cup of water onboard a ship w/jet fuel in it YUM YUM. :0

  7. well, the 3 hour brownout just hit around the time i needed an extra push to keep going to the gym. now, i go for the training AND the a/c!

  8. One of the reasons that there ARE so many brownouts is that the powers that be know that Filipinos will addapt/accept this situation. To paraphrase Winston Churchill (about Clement Atlee), “Filipinos are very accepting and they have alot to be accepting about.”

    As far as brownouts in the US are concerned, after the great ice storm of 2008, my (at the time) 93 year old mother was living on 20 acres in Southwest New Hampshire. She lived by herself (in December) for about two weeks without any power. No riots.

  9. Hey Bob,
    Im still wondering why they call it a brown out instead of a black out. Is this kind of like political correctness, like calling a prostitute a GRO?

  10. Hi Bob – Rumor has it that things are about to get better for you, or should I say wetter?

    From Typhoon2000 Storm Update:

    T2K TROPICAL OUTLOOK FOR MAY 11-17 2010: An increased chance for above-average rainfall for parts of MINDANAO. Decaying El Nino conditions, enhanced MJO and high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) expected to bring increased rainfall this week. Confidence: HIGH. This weekly outlook is intended for planners. Next outlook: Tue May 18.