Brownouts in the Philippines. As common as empty bottles of Red Horse littering the landscape after a fiesta. I’ve complained about power outages before on this website. Did a post last June about this frustrating problem. Had twice as many power failures in our Savannah Subdivision as opposed to the time we lived in nearby Guimaras. But last month, January 2013, was a record low amount of actual down time for us. Only three outages that lasted a total of seven minutes. I was shocked. Last January we had three incidents but they totaled over 14 hours. One was over 12 hours long.
I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve been keeping a record of all our brownouts since September 2010. In Guimaras, the mango province of the Philippines, we experienced only one power outage in February 2011. But it lasted a total of 31 minutes.
Of course, we’re “coping” with the “cold” months now. Temperatures have dipped as low as 64 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be heating up next month, and the number of brownouts will increase if past records I have maintained are any indication.
But for now I’m enjoying this rare respite from the infrastructure breakdown I’ve experienced since living in the Philippines. Now if we could just get that running water 24/7 that we were promised last March that would give this American expat one less thing to complain about. And my asawa would appreciate that.
Hi Dave,
I have only been here for vacation for the last two weeks and I also was noticing the unusually good poor supply. I thought it might just be I am lucky so far. It is too bad the Philippines hasn’t started to use more renewable energy sources like wind, tidal, or solar to help with peek demands.
Take care,
Mark
hi dave,
hope someday the supply of electricity is not a major problem in the city of love, iloilo, hows the business going on if there is a poor supply of electricity.. Regards.
i was talking to some dude in guimaras last weekend and he said the wind mill farm has no money to get it started and is a load of political crap.Maybe he was full of crap but it wouldnt surprise me if he is right.
Dave,
Cavite does good as far as brownouts go. With all that cow poop near your home in Guimaras they could use that for renewable energy lol.
Dave you forgot your on filipino time now. I lived there in 60’s and had same power problems. They are still working on same and will repair sooner or later. Ha Ha.
Hi Dave
I heard many expats complaining about the problems in PI: power, poor internet, traffic, air quality, etc. etc. Makes me wonder why they moved there in the 1st place. OK, I probably know the answer to that 🙂
So my question is how do you handle it? You seem to live a modest life – is that the answer? Or is it my gf’s fave statement, “go with the flow?”
Of course I live in a Western city without those problems and everyone is grumpy as hell. Maybe an occassional power outage would help here.
At least the power was on here in Tagum City so I could watch the UFC on Sunday. Watched the Super Bowl on Monday live!!! No brown out here but they had one in the Super Dome. Hahahaha
The president came to Mindanao last year about the brownouts here. He told everyone that we need to pay more on our electric bills to get less brown outs. Our rates are the highest in Asia. Some cities in the Visayas are the highest in the world.