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| Power to the Southern towns |
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| POWER TRANSMISSION BATANES |
| There's no place like Batanes! Mike Griffin |
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| NEWS |
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| ARCHIVES |
| ITBUD, Batanes - Hello and good day to you all! Well, here it is less than a week and I'm writing again. All of this has started around the 10th of July, 2008. NAPOCOR (National Power Corporation) has just posted a schedule of when we will get electricity. But in their letter to the public they stated how many and of what type generators they have, and which ones work. Guess what - they have seven generators! Unit #1 Perkins Diesel Rated @ 500 Kw carries a 400 Kw load Unit #2 Perkins Diesel Rated @ 260 Kw carries a 150 Kw load Unit #3 Perkins Diesel Rated @ 163 Kw carries a 100 Kw load Unit #4 CKD Diesel Rated @ 220 Kw carries a 160 Kw load Unit #5 CKD Diesel Rated @ 448 Kw carries a 250 Kw load Unit #6 Perkins Diesel Rated @ 500 Kw carries a 300 Kw load Unit #7 MAN Diesel Rated @ 500 Kw carries a 400 Kw load Of the seven - only two work producing a total useable load of 400 Kw. It doesn't matter which two are working, but the two Czechoslovakian generators don't work at all. Just scrap metal taking up space. They also stated that Basco will need 500 Kw and all of the southern municipalities need 230 Kw. So they divided Basco into two halves and the south by itself, and came out with something that might work, but all ready a watch stander that didn't understand his orders, shut off the power to the south at 8:00PM and not at the 8:30AM as instructed. Well, at least we got two hours of 15 promised. That's something! _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Using their figures, they need to produce 730 Kw of electricity each day as of today (July 10th). So as near as I can see, they need four new 1500 Kw generators to carry them to the end of this century and beyond. With this power, they would never need to be down that the public would see, and repairs could be done in a leisurely manner and not in panic like they are in now. Ok, here is the touchy part, imagine someone in a deep voice saying - "Well, Mr. wise ass Griffin, where do we get the money to pay for all of these nice things you are so quick to point out?" I respond simply: if the governor wants his office air conditioned, and the Congressman wants his constituents to vote for him the next time, you'll get the money. And while you are at it, you'll clean up that fire trap you call a power building and get some structural engineers in here to make sure that the foundation will take the shock of four 1500 Kws running at the same time. That's called "safety factor." Easy does it! I'm taking my time writing this article so I can keep up to date situations. On July 10th we were suppose to have electricity from 5:30PM till 8:30AM but they were an hour late starting and turn it off at 8:00PM. On July 12th they were to start at 8:30AM but didn't start until 8:46AM, and around 8:56AM they turn it off, and turn it back on at 9:50AM. Off again at 10:03AM and back on at 11:03AM. On July 13th it's off and until July 14th it was still off. On July 15th it came on at 10:30AM and was turned off at 6:02PM. The night of July 16th power came on 6:30PM and was turned off an hour later at 7:30PM. It happened this time not because of lack of electricity but because BATANELCO doesn't have the ability to analyze what's going on here, and instead follows blindly what Manila tells them. In this case a tropical storm had moved into the area and after passing Batanes it changed into a typhoon, and Manila panicked and set condition three* for the region. BATANELCO's policy is that if typhoon condition two or higher is set by Manila, all power to the south of the island is turned off so that the lines and equipment won't be damaged by salt spray. To be fair about this, it is a sound idea, but you have to temper it with reason. Did anyone from Basco go check the area to see if the storm surge was pushing the waves up high enough to cause damage? I think not, because I went and checked to see if they would go and see. Nope, not a soul! You see the storm was on the south eastern side of the island and the waves weren't any higher than three feet on the western side. For the naval types, its called: lee sides, the side where nothing happens. It reminds me of Sangley Point It reminds me of Sangley Point when it sent a message to us at the Coast Guard station telling us to set Typhoon condition #1 when no typhoons were in the region, and at the same time we were preparing for a party at the station. It was around 5:30PM and the weather was clear with a slight breeze blowing from the south east. I was the watch-stander on duty when the message came in so I sent for the old man and the Chief. When they arrived the CO requested Sangley to repeat the message which they did, and he asked if it were a joke. No, it wasn't a joke they had reliable information from 15th Air Force (Hawaii) and CINPAC West (Guam) that a major storm was forming just to the south of us. So the CO and the Chief look at each other and then the CO asked me how long it took to set everything to Typhoon Condition (One of my jobs back in 1968). I told him about twenty minutes, maybe a little longer. So we sent Sangley the required messages at the times we would have sent them, until they told us the storm had passed. Two days latter! We had a great party, and no typhoon. What I found hard to believe was we sent our four hour weather reports steadily, Sangley never asked why we said nothing about heavy rain or cloud cover and wind that never went above 5 knots. You can do much better if you use your own head; things work out for the better. Buy your own generator I have gotten this response from lest four responsible officials in Basco, "If you don't like the way you get electricity, buy your own generator!" Or this one, "If you don't like the way we produce electricity, start your own IPP (Independent Power Producer)!" Don't you just love it when there is so much love and brotherhood in the air? With that kind of understanding being demonstrated in the offices of high ranking government officials, it's a wonder that the island hasn't burped rolled over and sank into the ocean. By the way to form an IPP corp. you need to be one of the 800 families in the Philippines and a Filipino. No outsiders! After the typhoon passed we resumed the schedule that was set up, and on July 15th power was on at 10:30AM till 6:02PM, then on the night of the 16th it came on at 6:30PM an hour late, and then turned off an hour later. This interruption of power continued until the 23rd of July, and then beginning in the morning of the 24th we went back to steady electricity. Hummmmm - this is a relative term. Steady by Batanes standards, not the rest of the world. HEY! You guys have a nice day! Come and see us if you get a chance - there's no place like Batanes! - July 2008 *Note: Typhoon Conditions are 1 the lowest and 5 the highest. This is backwards to the US system where 5 is the lowest and 1A is the highest. 1A is the eye is over your location and wind will shift 180° in a short time at full strength. ______________________________________________________ Mike Griffin, an American Ivatan, lives in Itbud (Uyugan), Batanes, Philippines |
| HEY! You guys have a nice day! Come and see us if you get a chance - there's no place like Batanes! |
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