According to Gold Star Daily Newspaper today, the current 6-shift, 5-hour-every-other-day blackouts that are currently working their way through Mindanao are only the beginning step in what could wind up being a very dark and dismal time for electrical service on the island.
Due to reservoir water levels feeding the hydroelectric plants being so low, two generating plants are already at only 15% of possible electricity (150 out of 982 potential megawatts) generated. However, the time is not far away (81 days from now, May 22) when the water flow at these two plants will simply no longer able to spin the generators at all, taking them completely off line.
Currently, Mindanao is able to consistently generate 600 MW out of its normal 1300 MW. Local industry and commercial ventures are already at their lowest power consumption levels they can manage and still maintain operations.
Apparently, however, there are two backup diesel generators on the island that could be used that would almost completely offset the wattage shortfall, but currently the government is not releasing the funds with which to fuel and start them.
I'm not going to be so pessimistic as to believe that it will ever reach the point where we would be going for days at a time without power, but much more substantial outages than we are currently experiencing are almost certain, and I imagine could possibly rise to the level of 8 or 10 hours per day, every day, until the reservoir levels are once again replenished.
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4 comments:
Forget the chickens, man. Solar panels and wind turbines... You know, one of them "green jobs". 555 ! Good luck.
Is this a Mindanao-only problem?
Chetumaire: I would love to do that. I think that it is definitely a future business for The Philippines. Also, global warming is going to exacerbate this problem, because in 20 or 30 years, rainfall in The Philippines is supposed to decrease.
However, I'm not sure that people are currently willing to make the investment in solar panels and wind turbines... but it is a possibility on a small scale.
Tom: I think that there are problems also in Luzon and elsewhere, but it is most severe here.
Seems you've got another regular reader here. My girlfriend in San Francisco, Ph. told me about frequent brown outs and your blog gives me a lot of useful information. I'll come to Mindanao in April again, curious already about the situation there. Keep up the good work Jil, and good luck for your business plans
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