Rolling Brownouts, Electric Price Hike, Low Water Supply And High Fuel Prices

It's hot!

I don't think I need to say the obvious. Right now it's 10:40 in the evening and the temperature is a balmy 31.9-degrees Celcius. I don't know about you but that's hot.

The saving grace for many is we have either electric fans or air conditioning. Now if only we have the electricity to run them.

Right now in Metro Manila it seems rolling 3 hour brown outs are back. Of course it's better than the 12 hour ones we used to have back in the 90's but 3 hours is still a long time.

And since it's rolling you can have it either in the morning, afternoon, evening, or at night.

I'm sort of unsure which time would be the best time to have no power. On the one hand if you have it in the morning then you lose productivity for 3 hours for those with no generators.

For those with generators you have limited productivity along with the added cost of the generators and fuel.

If it's in the early evening when everyone is on their way home then it's a little better. Of course without power then the traffic lights won't work so a 1 hour commute becomes 3.

But then again since there's no electricity you're good to be stuck in traffic anyway - and I can just feel those evil stares from people who hate the traffic.

I understand - I hate them too.

Nigh brownouts I don't like either. Personally I can't sleep if I don't have a fan at least blowing some clammy hot air towards me. Even if it's hot it's better than stagnant humid air.

So if there's a brownout I can't sleep. So that means I won't get enough sleep and will be sleepy the next day potentially resulting in lowered productivity.

Ok I know, I know I did not offer any solution but frankly I don't have one. I would suggest the 5-9 time frame would be the best time to have a brownout.

By then work for the day is done and people don't sleep until around 10 anyway.

So they don't get to watch their tele-novellas or the PBA but that's life. And the PBA hasn't been as great since the 80's anyway.

And now Meralco will up their generation charge by P0.93 per kilowatt hour (kWh).

Now that's painful because you're basically paying for electricity you don't have.

And it's not like you'll be cooling off by taking a bath anytime soon because with the low water supply you may find yourself in the business end of rationed water.

Think it won't happen? Just wait until it get's hotter still and no rain in sight.

And when that happens expect more brownouts.

Oh and did I mention that fuel prices also went up.

And with fuel prices up, so too will the fuel used to run the power plants which will then result in another price increase to make up for it.

Ah the vicious cycle never ends.

And I'm sick of wondering why the government didn't have any long term plans for all this.

I mean you would think with their experience of what happened almost 20 years ago they would know better.

Oh wait this is our government we're talking about.

I should have known better.

Ay . . . brownout!!!