Brownouts now sporadically but consistently disturb our days and nights, interrupting work and wreaking havoc on appliances.  The UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) is now my computer’s best friend and those emergency lights that have been lying unused inside cabinets have now been dusted off and placed in strategic places in the house.  Fans are also at the ready, placed alongside the emergency lights so they can be easily found during power outages to be used as the only weapon against the blistering summer heat.  If I had extra cash lying around, I would have gone shopping for a generator by now.

Just when we are starting to believe the hype that we live in one of the best cities in the country, these brownouts come along and teleport us back to the dark ages. They are saying that the reason for these brownouts is the ongoing maintenance works in the Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant, which is causing a power shortage.  Some naughty minds are insinuating that the brownouts are a deliberate act by some people who are pushing the controversial use of a certain coal-fired power plant.  Whatever the reason for these brownouts are, the bottom line is that the consumers are suffering and this kind of condition should not be allowed to become permanent, which is the scary part about the situation because right now, nobody is giving us any timetables on how long we are supposed to bear with the brownouts.

Whoever allowed this power shortage to reach these proportions should be fired and then stuffed into a tiny windowless, powerless room until the problem is solved.  If it is the maintenance manager at Palinpinon, who obviously lacked the foresight to schedule major repair jobs on power generating units that provide electricity to an entire province, then he deserves it.  If it is some bureaucrat who failed to provide the resources and budget for a major repair after he was repeatedly informed of its urgency by his staff, then a public flogging should be added to his punishment.  If it is the work of politicians, who delayed repairs because of their wheeling and dealing, quest for commissions, or whatever just plain stupidity and neglect of duty, then I think having them face a firing squad after they are released from the hole would be an appropriate penalty.

One thing we can do about this power crisis is reducing our consumption and wastage of power.  A few suggestions include the use of compact fluorescent lamps, which compared to traditional incandescent bulbs consume less electricity yet provide the same illumination.  We can tell our households to practice putting off lights and appliances that are not in use.  We can lower the thermostats of our aircons, heaters, and refrigerators.  If we collectively conserve enough energy to make up for the current deficit, then load shedding would not have to be necessary and the brownouts could be stopped without anything being done by our public officials and the technical people in the power plants and power distribution network and cooperatives.

The other options we have left, if we can’t marshal enough people to conserve enough electricity to stop the load shedding, are hardly appealing, especially to our tree hugging friends, but if we want to live in relative comfort, then we have to consider whatever options we have left.  The first is to allow the CENECO-KEPCO deal to push through.  It is not an environment-friendly source of energy, and the power rates that have been mentioned somehow do not sound right, but for a people who are desperate for power, it is an option to consider.  If you ask me, I will only consider signing a contract for dirty coal power as a last option, and only if the power rates are indeed advantageous to us, which means it better be much cheaper than what they are offering us now.

The other option is to convince our very vocal tree hugging friends to allow the PNOC to dig for geothermal power inside the  Mt. Kanlaon buffer zone.  I get their argument that cutting more trees is bad, and that there are rare species of plants and animals in that area, but unless our tree hugging friends, and I mean all of them, do not use electricity at all, then they’d better be prepared to make concessions if they don’t want to continue living in brownout land.  Geothermal energy is one of the cleanest and greenest sources of energy available, and the Philippines is lucky enough to be blessed with it.  Unless the environmentalists can provide better options than geothermal energy, by options meaning those that are feasible and technologically available right now, I believe that it is our responsibility and duty to tap this gift of geothermal energy.

Someone should be held responsible for this power crisis that we are experiencing right now.  Even if it is only an hour of power outage every other day, it is negatively affecting businesses and homes.  For something as critical as electricity, flimsy excuses should never be acceptable.  Aside from holding our public officials accountable for this shortcoming, we should also try our best to become responsible consumers by using electricity wisely because it is not an unlimited resource.