Electrical Outages Here

[Mik]

The power just came back on. I live near Consolacion, Cebu. The outage this afternoon lasted about one hour. I called VECO to report it and they said they already know - "there is a shortage of electricity and we had to shut off power in your area". Wow, come again? Shortage? I hope this isn't the beginning of more outages for us. The regular outages due to storms, maintenance, auto accidents are bad enough. Maybe soon they will start to ration out power with rotating brownouts - so many hours per day?Anyway, this is a third world country. That means the infrastructure can use a lot of improvement. With the corruption here that is easier said than done. So before you move here, that is one of the negatives you must take into account. Don't expect it to be like it was back home. Get used to it.I found this in a news article from earlier this year:"...Mosses Red, in charge of dispatches at National Power Corp. (Napocor) Visayas, said power reserves in Cebu, Negros and Panay were already very thin for this summer. Demand is expected to rise next year, with no new sources in the pipeline, and the year after that. By 2010, peak demand is expected to be almost 900 MW, with an average dependable capacity of only 746 MW. In Metro Cebu

[retired]

Unfortunately what is happening on Cebu island is pretty much the same for the rest of the country . With rising demand and little on-line additional supply a return to brown outs is not if but when .

[Mik]

Looks like for at least the next year and a half my generator will see increasing use.

[paul]

Be happy you weren't living here when I was frequently coming to Cebu. Every other day, back then, we had brownouts.

[twostrokes]

Be happy you weren't living here when I was frequently coming to Cebu. Every other day, back then, we had brownouts.

Yes, I was gonna say, 1990-1992 was the worst I have seen in what I call recent times.Much of that time we had power maybe 4-6 hours a day, not necessarly all consecutive hours either. It was ugly..and I know to most of you that was a really really long time ago, but forgive me as to me it doesn't seem I have been gone that long, even though it has been about 15 years now...Jim

[paul]

Exactly, Jim. I tell ya, I appreciate "today's" Cebu, a lot more. :)What helped cure that here was, the underground cable from Leyte. They ran it from Leyte to Cebu, to assist with power requirements here. Unfortunately, they didn't plan (well enough) for increased electrical requirements for Leyte. Perhaps it has just happened a bit faster than they expected? Who knows. Anyway, I was on a fast craft heading over to Ormoc, not too long ago. On the boat, I met a gentleman who does extensive work in the Philippines on the Geothermal plants here. He is an American, based out of California, who is in country quite regularly. Anyway, during our talk, I learned that most of the Geothermal plants here, are not producing nearly as much as they could be, had they the proper maintenance and care. Unfortunately, little is done to maintain the equipment at these plants. He told me some interesting stories about the geothermal plants in this country.Either way, I feel, with the growing electrical requirements of Cebu, if they don't do something soon, some investors who have large businesses here will end up pulling out of the country, or at least out of this part of the country. Some big names need reliability in electricity, which is why they built plants here in the first place. Of course, they may make sure those power requirements are met, while letting everything else suffer.I suppose time will tell.

[James]

the very reason I have just invested in a 7.5kva gene her ein UK, its shipped and I look forward to its hard wiring in Cebu this December. I hope that its man enough to provide some basic power and cooling of course in times of brown outs.James

[paul]

Hi James,I ran a 3kva genset and it provided power for one air-con (window unit), two refrigerators, one upright freezer, all the lights I needed.Brownouts in Bogo, man... that was one reason I moved back to the city. There were weeks when the generator ran more than it was off! HTHPaul

[twostrokes]

Exactly, Jim. I tell ya, I appreciate "today's" Cebu, a lot more. :13_4_10[1]: What helped cure that here was, the underground cable from Leyte. They ran it from Leyte to Cebu, to assist with power requirements here. Unfortunately, they didn't plan (well enough) for increased electrical requirements for Leyte. Perhaps it has just happened a bit faster than they expected? Who knows. Anyway, I was on a fast craft heading over to Ormoc, not too long ago. On the boat, I met a gentleman who does extensive work in the Philippines on the Geothermal plants here. He is an American, based out of California, who is in country quite regularly. Anyway, during our talk, I learned that most of the Geothermal plants here, are not producing nearly as much as they could be, had they the proper maintenance and care. Unfortunately, little is done to maintain the equipment at these plants. He told me some interesting stories about the geothermal plants in this country.Either way, I feel, with the growing electrical requirements of Cebu, if they don't do something soon, some investors who have large businesses here will end up pulling out of the country, or at least out of this part of the country. Some big names need reliability in electricity, which is why they built plants here in the first place. Of course, they may make sure those power requirements are met, while letting everything else suffer.I suppose time will tell.

It was the same thing back then, on Luzon, something like all but 2 of thier 7 power plants were down due to no maint. It came out that the records from Merlco showed that all the budget for maint. had been spent, but none of it actually went to repair and upkeep of the power plants, just went into a few peoples pockets..no one was prosacuted. A couple of the Navy ships were even in port in manila, just to supply some power...It's too bad they got ripped so bad on the nuke power plant that never got finished because it was on a fault line or something....that was a lot of pesos for nothing..and they are still paying for it. Plan on having my own genset when I'm there. Already have the 10kw head, am looking for a listeroid 2 cyl diesel for continuous operation if necessary. Those will run forever. Jim

[James]

Hi James,I ran a 3kva genset and it provided power for one air-con (window unit), two refrigerators, one upright freezer, all the lights I needed.Brownouts in Bogo, man... that was one reason I moved back to the city. There were weeks when the generator ran more than it was off! HTHPaul

Thats good to know Paul, I would hate to have you come round for a beer and find there was no cold ones available matejames