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We went almost a year without any long or recurring brownouts in northern Cebu Province. That appears to have come to an end. I didn’t get too worried when we had an all day brownout last month but then we had another one this Sunday.
When there is a power failure in the Philippines, the locals usually refer to them as a “brownout.” Yes, I know that a brownout in the USA means a reduction in power. This is not the USA here. Here it means a completely power failure. There is nothing brown about them other than they almost always happen in during the day. Perhaps that is even why they call them that.
Power Outages In Cebu
Soon after I moved to Bogo City, we started having a brownout once per month on Sundays. 
When the lights went off around 8am or earlier on a Sunday, then you knew that they would be out all day. Last month, we saw that happen. Then again this week we were greeted early Sunday morning with another one.
My sleeping is once again all fouled up. It is just part of being me. Sometimes, often actually, I find that I can’t sleep at night and stay up all night and then sleep all day. I have joked for a long time that I am vampire. I personally believe that our bodies try to keep us safe from ourselves. I have one or more auto-immune disorders. Auto-immune disorders are often energized by the sun. Perhaps the sun is or provides an enzyme that kicks in our immune systems. I don’t know the mechanism but it is well documented. All my life, I have been known to break out into some pretty horrific rashes due to the sun.
Anyway, what I’m trying to lead up to is when the lights go out, its a great time to grab the family (or some women if you don’t have one haha) and head to the beach. Yeah, I know gasp, he likes girls. Well, it could be worse, I could be a Republican senator. haha Oh boy, I’m on a roll here hacking folks off with this.
Since I had been up all night, I couldn’t do that and instead it was a great time to sleep. It was a rainy day for most of the day. That’s a good day to have brownout if one must have them. Sometimes it seems they wait until the hottest days to do it. When the sun is the brightest.
The real problem is that we are not yet to the hottest months. May and June will be the months where the sun comes in and beats down on us. The air feels like the breath of the dragon. When it moves, it feels like a dragon has come from the depths of its volcano with a belly full of lava and fried some poor princess just down the block.
There is a lot of new construction in Cebu City. Many new condos and the call centers are rapidly growing but clearly the infrastructure can’t handle it. So, I suppose in order to keep Cebu City running well, they shot the power off for one Sunday a month in northern Cebu. My guess is they do the same for the southern half of Cebu as well.
This went on for about a year, then the brownouts became more frequent and they were having two hour blackouts all over the province. That included Cebu City. Or at least parts of it. Not long after they hit the city more power plants went online. Then for a almost a year, no more brownouts except the occasional line down someplace. That usually take less than an hour to fix.
This last time, the brownout lasted from 7am to after 6pm. Often the phones and the water is out too. I slept through most of it, so that was good. Jessie suffered through reading “her” Amazon Kindle. Sometimes I’d wake up to find her fanning me. She can be such an angel at times.
She woke me up once to sign something. I couldn’t see. I was virtually unconscious. The 
mailman delivered my BDO card. I reported it stolen in the middle of January and it finally shows up. I was told it would take a week. I should have known better. It took almost two months! But they deliver the mail on Sunday. There’s that strange customer service again. Its great enough that they deliver mail on Sunday but it took two months for BDO or the mail or someone to get my card to me. I suspect it was BDO. Mail service inside the Philippines is usually fine. And of course, no electrical power on a Sunday is not the best customer experience either.
It feels like the officials in Cebu City just don’t care about us. I suspect the officials in northern Cebu care a great deal. They probably care in the city too but one can’t help but notice the power situation remained unchanged until it also involved Cebu City.
Then there is the question of why do they keep allowing expansion when they can’t meet the needs of the current activities in Cebu. It doesn’t seem right. It sure drives me nuts. However, I can see a reason for it. To expand, perhaps Cebu Province needs more money. Expansion should mean more taxes and thus they can upgrade the infrastructure. Yet that seems like a plan doomed for failure. Where does it end? Why keep recreating the problem. It really seems like poor planning. Then again, sluggish growth is also a problem. I suppose either way Cebu was to move on this, it creates problems.
I Love Living in Northern Cebu
I will remain in Bogo for another year. I really hope I don’t have to stay another two years. I love Bogo, its a very nice place to live but I need to move closer to more advanced medical facilities and I also want to get out of these brownouts. At least cut them down some.
People often say if they privatized the power production, these problems would go away. I’ve seen that work in some areas. Bantayan Island though has privatized power production and it hasn’t solved their issues. That might be because Bantayan Island is having a problem with growth. Some of that is environmental issues and regulations and there is a lot of controversy around that.
Bogo is also a high growth area. There is even some talk of a regional airport in Bogo. I don’t see it as very serious talk but Samar just got it. Perhaps it is possible Bogo City will. Samar though is an entire province, not jut a city. Bogo City needs an airport and an enhanced dive spot. There is also talk of SM putting a mall in Bogo City. It seems they do have an interest but finding enough land in a location that interest them seems to be a problem. The mayor didn’t seem all that optimistic that it would happen soon.
If you’re a family guy and don’t have a lot of medical issues then Bogo City is a nice place to live. I may stay, but I’ll have to buy a car to do it. And that is may be a better choice. Perhaps I’ll be able to do that instead. I love living in Cebu and the northern tip has its advantages but these power outages need to disappear for good.
Tagged with: Bogo City • Brownouts • In the Philippines • Living in Cebu • Power Outage
Filed under: Living in Cebu
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Hey mate, I am fan of your website. Indeed Cebu is a very nice place. I should feature that in my site too.
Thanks for the kind words about my country.
Hi Rusty glad you decided to write about brown outs. Here in Eastern Samar and being a business owner I sometimes feel the power company has a personal vendetta against us. Brown outs here are a weekly event that we use for a day off. They call them scheduled brownouts but I have yet to see the schedule lol. There are no papers or anything like that to prepare for them. Actually if we take the jeep to Borongan to do some shopping for our cafe we pass the power office where we pay the bills. It is conveniently located in the middle of nowhere and I once saw a sign in the front that you would need to use a magnifying glass to read that there will be a brown out scheduled.
We run a small cafe that serves food and has free wifi halo halo mango shakes and the like. Our ice shaver is electric and as is my wireless router so a brown out is a big event for us. I have thought of getting a generator but with the price of fuel right now it would just eat up the profits. Will look into that some more though. Being a Canadian I love to bitch sometimes when the power goes out and go into a rant about sending the power company the bill for profits lost during the day lol. Everyone here takes it in great stride though and there is a great sense of jubilation when the power comes back on. It is like when you touch your computer mouse and your pc comes out of sleep mode lol.
We generally have a brown out a week here and they usually last from 6-6. I try every morning to have my three s,s completed (s,shower,shave) by 530am just to be safe. We have our yaya our 2 cafe employees and my mother in laws business helpers all living under one roof here so getting to the shower first is a tactical event lol.
But as you said it is a great time to head to the beach grab a cottage and enjoy the day. But for me brown outs are a event unique to living here and you make the best of it. If it is a blackout in the evening well you get to spend some quality time with the asawa and catch up on some intimate moments that a busy day will not allow you to lol.
Yeah, scheduled seems to mean, we did it on purpose. We have a local coop that we call and they say they didn’t know the schedule either. haha
They use to announce it on the local radio station but I don’t think they do that any more.
Yes it does seem they are out to get us at time. I’ve had the same feeling. I know its not true but I have the feeling anyway and I want REVENGE. haha
And I understand the momentary spats of anger that arise during the middle of it. The more often they come the harder those events are to fight off. If you have nothing to do, boy is it boring. Sometimes I find I start to turn on the PC or reach for a remote. Such a habit.
Sometimes, I get on the netbook and I would have Sunday had I been awake, The more brownouts we have, the more I update my eBook. Guess I had best get my drop box files up to date. I share my files there so I can access them on any PC.
I’ve written about the blackouts a lot. I’m surprised the mayor did contact me and tell me to shut up. LOL
I has suspected Samar would be worse than Cebu. I have not been to Samar but I want to visit, at least the bridge. I’ve been through Leyte a couple of times.
I spoke with someone that runs a cafe before, maybe it was even in email which I rarely answer any more. 🙂 I just can’t. Was that you?
You have a good attitude about it at least while it’s not happening.
There was a couple of periods where we had them every day for weeks at a time. I’m afraid, come may, we are going to return to that.
What about battery backup? Are they horribly expensive? My neighbor has it, runs his whole house. He’s Filipino and doesn’t have aircon. It would seem he could afford it. Has to do what you are use to I suppose.
If I had a retail business, it would be twice as hard. Sometimes I REALLY need to be online. Seems like something is broken when the lights or Internet connection is down.
Yes that was me I think. I was asking also when the next time it will be that you will be going to Tacloban. But I understand the security reasons on the site here. Anyways another hot day no blackout yet but it is not friday or saturday yet will have to see.
Growl, I lost my last reply somehow. No, I can’t say in public.
Shoot me an email rusty@cebuexperience.com I have a time I want to go but I don’t know if I’ll be able too. At least it would give you and idea of when to give me a “hollar” 🙂
Oh man, brownouts. Don’t sound too good for me. How do you keep your food cold and frozen food in freezer? I better get bunch of back-up batteries to keep my computer on for hours if I ever go to Philippines. It would be wise to buy solar cell to hook up your computer, TV, and refrigerator. I have seen the websites about solar cells. Very cheap to make them. Be smart and go green without the corporation electricity charging you for money each month. You will save lot of money. I would buy solar cells and also a generator. It is time for all of us to go green and be smart to save more money in our pockets.
Richie, there is nothing good about a brownout. They are my least favorite thing about the Philippines. I started to say things I disliked but after seeing what Filipino are saying about Jimmy’s video on the things he disliked, I think I’ll just keep my dislikes to myself. 🙂 haha
Richie, maybe you can show me how to make one when you get here. I don’t have a clue. If it was cheap and easy to do, I can assure you Filipino would be doing it. Well, doesn’t need to be easy, needs to be cheap. Wonder where I could find the stuff and plans are on the level of Electronics For Dummies. Solar Panels for dummies. Would be nice to run the fan on one too.
I’d like to know more about the solar panels where’s a good place to learn about it. Do you know?
Rusty,
I have 3 ebooks I bought last year and I would be glad to send them to you in email. Maybe you can buy some things there a lot cheaper than USA. I don’t know. You check ebooks out and hopefully you find something interesting. If you dont want to make them, you can buy the one already made to run your fan or TV from ebay.com I think you type solar panel or solar cell for search, you get the idea what I mean.
Send me your email, so I can send you my 3 ebooks.
Richie from Ohio.
I sent you my email but I don’t want you to send the eBooks. If they are leit the guys deserve to earn from there work. Unless they were free then that’s fine.
If it really cheap and it really works here should be some free things on the net providing information.
Thanks
Hi Rusty.I have looked into solar panels and wind generators and nothing is cheap that I can find.Solar panels are only 38 percent so far so they need to inprove on them.Most of the solar panels I have seen come from China because I,m told there is a lot of polution in making them.It cost 50 to 70 thousand dollars to go green in Canada.We have some solar houses being tested here every year.Solar panels cost about 600 dollars each for good ones.In Cebu you would need about 10 and a battery system to store the energy.The batteries have to be deep cycle.Wind power will work if you have steady wind.Wind mills are something that could be built in the Philippines with local supplies.If you find something that will work please let me know,because green is the future.Thanks Rusty and keep up the good work.Randall from Canada.
Yeah, there are several solar power providers in the Philippines. There is nothing inexpensive about them.
I’m not good at building things like this but I would love to give it a try on a small scale.
It seems that grabbing energy out of the air would be cheap, it would be if it were easy to convert that energy into something we can use. I should have been born a plant?