Brownouts - From a Business Perspective

[OnMyWay]

We don't have brownouts in Subic Bay but I always hear you guys talking about them.  Today we visited a friend's large resto in Dinalupihan and when we arrived, his big generator was running.  It is huge and keeps the entire building supplied with electricity, which includes his 2 connected business' and his apartment upstairs.

He told me that it was a scheduled brownout and they have them once in a while, so he had to get the big generator when he opened the resto.  Freezers, frigs, air con, lights, all stay running at full power during the brownouts.

Here is what I didn't think of before.  He said it costs him 4000-5000 in diesel to keep that generator going today.  Multiply that by many business' that require backup power, and these brownouts cost some serious money.  Add in the losses suffered by business' that do normal business during a brownout, and it adds up even more.  Brownouts are expensive for business and the economy!

I guess the good part for him is that he probably gets some extra customers who come in to cool off and have a bite to eat!

[Marvin Boggs]

Our daily business relies on internet fiber access.  We have a lot of natural light in the space, so when the brownouts happen people can still work via their battery powered laptops.  Usually not more than a few hours.  What we JUST discussed this week actually, is getting a UPS (battery backup power supply) for the three routers we have.  Usually the phones are still operational, so hopefully this will give us the capability for people to keep their internet access during the brownout.  Don't know why we didn't think of it before.  

I wonder how much those big diesel generators in the malls cost to run when the power goes out?  That's where we always head off to when the brownouts at home last too long!  

[Jollygoodfellow]

Schedule power outages can not be an issue in the sense maintenance  has to be done . I worked with power companies in my own country for years  so have an idea what goes on.

[OnMyWay]

11 hours ago, Marvin Boggs said:

I wonder how much those big diesel generators in the malls cost to run when the power goes out?  That's where we always head off to when the brownouts at home last too long!  

That was my point.  They must have giant diesel fuel tanks on site to keep the generators going.

[OnMyWay]

5 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Schedule power outages can not be an issue in the sense maintenance  has to be done . I worked with power companies in my own country for years  so have an idea what goes on.

OK, but how frequently is reasonable?

However, without knowing a lot about municipal power systems, I would argue that a system can be engineered to allow maintenance while keeping the power on to most customers.

We don't have scheduled brownouts in Subic Bay Freeport, where the system was set up by the U.S. Navy.  A short power outage happens once in a while and most of the time we find out a transformer blew.  They are very quick to fix that.

I can't remember having a scheduled outage in all my years in the U.S.

In Olongapo, next to us, they have scheduled outages quite often, along with short notice quick repairs.  I'm on their mailing list.  The Olongapo electric, phone and whatever wires are the typical Philippine massive mess of tangled old and new wires.  I don't see how anyone can keep that functioning safely.

[hk blues]

16 hours ago, Marvin Boggs said:

What we JUST discussed this week actually, is getting a UPS (battery backup power supply) for the three routers we have.  Usually the phones are still operational, so hopefully this will give us the capability for people to keep their internet access during the brownout.  Don't know why we didn't think of it before.

I do online teaching so need reliable power for my router. You could do what I do - connect a cellphone powerbank to your modems with a 5v to 12v transformer cable sold on Lazada - it has the necessary connections and is made exactly for that purpose. We don't have many outages but they happen from time to time and my back-up system has never let me down. It can power the modem for much longer than your PCs will last so no concerns.

[jimeve]

2 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I do online teaching so need reliable power for my router. You could do what I do - connect a cellphone powerbank to your modems with a 5v to 12v transformer cable sold on Lazada - it has the necessary connections and is made exactly for that purpose. We don't have many outages but they happen from time to time and my back-up system has never let me down. It can power the modem for much longer than your PCs will last so no concerns.

Or buy a 12v deep cycle battery and a 12v inverter with battery charge. 100 Ah battery should last a long time if it's just a router for power.

[hk blues]

15 minutes ago, jimeve said:

Or buy a 12v deep cycle battery and a 12v inverter with battery charge. 100 Ah battery should last a long time if it's just a router for power.

Double Dutch to me Jim!

No idea of the cost of your alternative but mine cost 1500php all in.

Always good to have a back up for the back-up though - cheers!

[hk blues]

19 minutes ago, jimeve said:

Or buy a 12v deep cycle battery and a 12v inverter with battery charge. 100 Ah battery should last a long time if it's just a router for power.

Exactly - I'm pretty sure the limiting factor will be the PC battery rather than the modem power supply anyway. My Laptop will give me about 1.5 hours max power - poor!

[jimeve]

22 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Double Dutch to me Jim!

No idea of the cost of your alternative but mine cost 1500php all in.

Always good to have a back up for the back-up though - cheers!

Battery itself would cost about P6,000 and same for an inverter, but you could run fans, tv, satellite box etc for a limited time.