On June 23, 1992, then Philippine President Corazon Aquino spoke about future development in the Philippines in which she warned, “The self-respect of the Filipino nation [would depend on] ensuring that our infrastructure, specifically our power-generation facilities, are adequate to cope with increasing demands of industry.”
Blackouts were a speech-worthy issue at that time, as power outages plagued the people of the Philippines during her regime.
But almost three decades later, those words echo as a warning gone unheeded, as the Philippines still faces challenges supplying stable electricity, resulting in frequent brownouts.
We experienced many last week, at least once a day, rolling blackouts (or brownouts) hitting Dumaguete, barangay by barangay, or even all at once.
These outages are due to the 6.5 earthquake that rocked Leyte on July 6th, debilitating its power infrastructure.
According to a release by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, “The earthquake caused island-wide blackouts in Samar, Bohol, Southern Leyte, and parts of Northern Leyte.” The Energy Development Corp. which operates geothermal plants in Valencia and serves much of Negros and the Visayas, is currently inspecting their power plants in Leyte.
We understand that these outages in Dumaguete are just a necessary inconvenience for most, and our thoughts and best wishes go out to those in Leyte who were affected.
Since these brownouts are going to be a regular part of life for the next month or two according to my “credible source” (a friend from the Shawarma shop who knows a guy who stopped and asked an electric line worker), I wanted to give you a few shocking facts about electricity, power, and blackouts in the Philippines, as well as the world:
* As of June 2016, the total capacity for the entire Philippine power grid was 20,055 megawatts, with about 71.5 percent of that capacity (14,348 MW) dedicated to the Luzon grid.
* But about 12 percent of Filipinos across the country have no access to electricity on a daily basis.
* In Mindanao, for instance, blackouts and rolling brownouts are a regular part of life for many of its 22 million citizens.
* The Philippines has the highest energy costs among all Southeast Asian countries, with residential electricity prices 60 percent higher than in Thailand. (Indonesia has the lowest.)
* This country has about 30 million more people than Thailand, but produces less than half the amount of energy.
* The first electric company in the country was La Electricista, founded in 1892 in Manila, which built the first electric generating plant in the country.
* These days, about 80 percent of the government’s power generation assets are owned by private individuals and corporations.
* The Philippines is second only to the US for the potential to generate geothermal power, although this country’s renewable sources such as geothermal, solar, etc., remain underdeveloped.
* 2013 and 2014 were not good years for the country’s energy sector, with massive blackouts affecting up to 50 percent of Luzon and 70 percent of Mindanao. Some of these were due to power plant failures, human error or accidents, and others because of typhoons (Yolanda, Glenda, etc.).
* But one notable outage in Albay left 1.2 million people without power for 39 hours. The cause? Apparently, the Albay Electric Cooperative had failed to pay its bill to the national power-grid operator, a $93 million balance that had been outstanding for 15 years prior!
* But that pales in comparison to the largest blackout in world history on July 31, 2012 in India when about 670 million people — or nine percent of the world’s population -— saw the lights go out.
* While it wasn’t the biggest, the most famous power outage in history may have been New York City’s blackout on July 13, 1977, set against the backdrop of a city gripped by fear of the Son of Sam serial killer, frustrations with 12 percent unemployment, and rampant racial tensions. That all boiled over on a sweltering summer day when a massive power failure at rush hour caused the City to descend into anarchy overnight. The ensuing chaos resulted in 3,800 arrests, 1,500 looted stores, 1,000 major fires, and more than $1 billion in damages before power was restored 10 hours later.
* But there was a rosy upside to the New York City power outage, as nine months later, local hospitals experienced an uptick in women giving birth, thanks to the many couples who found the candle-lit blackout to be romantic!
Do you have any funny or interesting stories about brownouts here? Share them with me here.
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Author’s email: hi@normschriever.com
