Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Power problems


















I will never take electricity for granted ever again.

As I write this, the power just came back and I immediately plugged in my laptop and cellphone to take advantage of the electricity. Power has been on and off throughout today, and it's possible that there will be another brownout tonight.

It all started yesterday, at about 4:01 p.m., when the power went out all over the city (I later learned that it went out in all areas covered by the electric cooperative NORECO 2). It didn't bother me that much at that time as I thought it will go back before nightfall. However, dinnertime came and still blackness covered the city. By 9:00, I couldn't stand it. We are in the midst of summertime here in the Philippines and to have no electricity is simply unacceptable! By 10:00 I seriously considered dragging my parents to a nearby hotel where there's a generator to check in for the night. It was that hot. But I know my parents wouldn't go for it. They opted to sleep at the living room where it's cooler.

Throughout the day today, electricity was on and off. It turns out that the
50MVA transformer at the Amlan Substation - which provides power to the areas covered by the electric cooperative NORECO 2- had an "excessive oil leakage" and they had to be placed on emergency shutdown at around 4:01 pm yesterday (the time when $the brownout started).

For the meantime, TRANSCO is temporarily feeding power to NORECO 2 through their 30MVA transformer. Since this is a smaller transformer, NORECO 2 is resorting to power rationing by rotating brownouts in its coverage areas. The TRANSCO management promised that if no major damage is found on the leaking transformer, power will be normalized by tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

It's no joke to have no electricity, especially during hot summer days. Aside from the heat, I realize now how unproductive my day would be without electricity. Today, at work, I had to transcribe my news by long hand- not easy since I am already used to transcribing it directly to the computer. Writing in longhand feels so strange and awkward for me now. Almost 99% of the stuff I do at work involves the computer, so what can I do if there's no power? Sigh. It's worse at night. No TV, no light, no electric fan, no Internet - I feel cut off from the rest of the world.

But of course, the experience got me thinking too. As I was lying in bed last night, I suddenly realized how quiet it was. So quiet but strangely, I can hear the kids next door laughing, dogs barking somewhere, people talking, a door slamming- the sounds of life at night that gets drowned by the hum of electricity. Hearing them felt strangely comforting, like a lullaby. This must be what people before heard at nighttime, back in the days before Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity. No wonder people back then lived longer lives- they slept better.



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