Thought for the day.

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, RBM said:

HK may I ask, how much of a factor does the weather play in your decision to stay or return to the UK. 

From my own 2 year stint there its worse than South Island NZ....Major factor in my decision to stay on here, regardless of hiccups.

The weather doesn't really come into it, RBM.  I actually like the 4 seasons we "enjoy" in the UK but more so from a distance t.b.h. - the grass is always greener after all! I lived  on the East Coast of Scotland and then NW England.  Contrary to popular belief, both were very similar and in fact it rained more when I was living in England.

I'm here because I can make my money go further, it's pretty much as simple as that.

[Jollygoodfellow]

5 hours ago, BC57 said:

And I thought our 8-9 hours scheduled brownouts were bad enough, glad we don't have 12 hour brownouts like you get.

It is a schedule outage for maintenance so not what l call a brownout. Its advertised in advance and has to be done.

 

[hk blues]

20 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

It is a schedule outage for maintenance so not what l call a brownout. Its advertised in advance and has to be done.

 

A quick search on Google provided little conclusive help - one said a brownout is merely a reduction in power and another said an unplanned power outage.  My own idea before was a blackout was a planned outage and a brownout an unplanned one but I reckon that's not everyone's interpretation.  

[Gandang Smile]

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

A quick search on Google provided little conclusive help - one said a brownout is merely a reduction in power and another said an unplanned power outage.  My own idea before was a blackout was a planned outage and a brownout an unplanned one but I reckon that's not everyone's interpretation.  

I have been working closely with Aboitiz Power to integrate outage management in the mobile app we are developing, so I have a pretty good idea of what the different terms mean, at least in the context of the utilities they manage (Visayan Electric, Davao Light, Cotabato Light, Subic Enerzone, etc.).

In the Philippines, a brownout is a euphemism for a planned, rotational blackout. Utilities have very rarely been able to accommodate the growth in demand with growth in supply (generation), especially in the larger urban areas. A good example is new malls sprouting up and requiring sufficient load for dozens or hundreds of shops and communal facilities. Ayala, SM, Megaworld and the likes are usually much faster at completing new mall complexes than utilities can upgrade their networks. What then happens is that these utilities run their networks at peak or near-peak capacity.

As soon as any event happens, man-made or nature-made, that brings down even a small part of their generation network, utilities have no other choice than reapportion the remaining generation power based on a rotational schedule. Sometime they have to react quickly to unforeseen circumstances, e.g. a distribution point being blown off by a bomb (it happened in Davao, about 6 years ago), but most of the times these are schedules planned at least 2 weeks in advance.

Of course if utilities didn't have to run at near-peak all the times, they would be much more resilient to issues in one or more parts of their network. In Davao City (and in Cebu City, I hear), a 24-hour downtime of a single power plant is sufficient to trigger at least half a week of rotational blackouts.   

I must say that, since my 2015 times, the situation in Davao has improved considerably. However, lack of investment to upgrade and improve their network, both on the generation and distribution sides, is endemic across all electrical utilities in the Philippines, especially the smaller franchises. 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Gandang Smile

[Queenie O.]

5 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

I'm seeing with the advent of technology and the recent issues with covid more locals are realising that complaining gets things done.  Maybe it's the Raffy Tulfo effect.  Things are improving and less are telling foreigners to go home if they highight an issue and a solution. 

I observe that too Snowy. With your reference to Raffy Tulfo as an example, I think that many more Filipino people are becoming more assertive of their rights instead of often in the past accepting the status quo.

[hk blues]

27 minutes ago, Gandang Smile said:

In the Philippines, a brownout is a euphemism for a planned, rotational blackout.

I'm not convinced this is a particularly common idea among the general population - see Jollygoodfellow's reply above

[Gandang Smile]

18 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I'm not convinced this is a particularly common idea among the general population - see Jollygoodfellow's reply above

I think this is the terminology used by the utilities. As it usually happens in the Philippines, it's a lingo meant to hide, not to explain.

The general population can interpret whatever they want.  

Edited May 31, 2021 by Gandang Smile

[Guy F.]

7 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

It is a schedule outage for maintenance so not what l call a brownout. Its advertised in advance and has to be done.

 

In the Philippines "it has to be done." In other countries not nearly so much. In Wyoming USA we are not without electricity more than a few hours each year. In Japan the average consumer is without electricity an average of 5 minutes per year.

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Guy F. said:

In the Philippines "it has to be done." In other countries not nearly so much. In Wyoming USA we are not without electricity more than a few hours each year. In Japan the average consumer is without electricity an average of 5 minutes per year.

If consistent power is important to you, I will be selling my house in Subic Bay Freeport towards the end of the year!  

I think we had one scheduled outage in the 8 years I have been here, when a huge main line for the whole area was replaced.  We lost power for a day or so when there was big typhoon, but unscheduled outages are very rare, usually very short, and most are caused by exploding transformers.  I think these transformers were installed by the U.S. Navy.  Subic Enerzone does repairs very quickly and gets praise from all the residents.  Subic Freeport has it's own power plant and they only buy power outside if they have to shut down for maintenance.

[Robi]

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