visayas blackout / brownout
Just recently the whole Visayas has been hit by the blackout which resulted in headaches and heat complains from people included in the area, not to mention the terrible heat with very little to none water supply due to down pumps generated by electricity.
A blackout caused by a problem with a transmission line in Leyte province hit several parts of the Visayas area Saturday morning and lasted for about eight hours, a radio report said.
The power outage started at about 9:45 a.m., but power had been partially restored to some areas in the Central Visayas region as of Saturday evening,
Visayas Electric Company (VECO) vice president for administration Sebastian Lacson said the blackout affected the entire Central Visayas region. Lacson said 80 percent of the power supply for Central Visayas comes from Leyte.
So here we go, just as they say. It’s better to have no electricity than have no water, but that’s not the case here, since out place is included in Visayas Blackout and specifically our water supply pump is generated by electricity so when there is a blackout then there is no water in the faucets which really sucks.
Unless the national government speeds up the development of the country’s geothermal energy capability, the Philippines will suffer persistent power outages that will turn away potential investors and derail economic recovery
Power is strategic to our economic development. The issue goes beyond blackouts but economic opportunities lost because of a short sighted power policy,
periodic power outages that have been hitting key cities in Visayas and Mindanao in the last few months because of increasing demand. And unless national government gives full priority to harnessing geothermal power, the country faces the prospect of more power outages that will turn away foreign investors, especially those looking for clean sources of power for their factories.
Next to the United States , the Philippines has the second highest geothermal power capacity in the world right now. And we have enough geothermal power on our islands to more than double our current capacity,
Geothermal power is abundant in Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas, Southern Tagalog, the Soccsksargen region and Central Mindanao .
Environmental Impact
Geothermal fluids drawn from the deep earth may carry a mixture of gases with them, notably carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. When released to the environment, these pollutants contribute to global warming, acid rain, and noxious smells in the vicinity of the plant. Existing geothermal electric plants emit an average of 90-120 kg of CO2 per MWh of electricity, a small fraction of the emission intensity of conventional fossil fuel plants. Some are equipped with emissions-controlling systems that reduces the exhaust of acids and volatiles.
In addition to dissolved gases, hot water from geothermal sources may contain trace amounts of dangerous elements such as mercury, arsenic, and antimony which, if disposed of into rivers, can render their water unsafe to drink. Geothermal plants can theoretically inject these substances, along with the gases, back into the earth, in a form of carbon sequestration.
Construction of the power plants can adversely affect land stability in the surrounding region. This is mainly a concern with Enhanced Geothermal Systems, where water is injected into hot dry rock where no water was before.
Geothermal has minimal land use requirements; existing geothermal plants use 1-8 acres per megawatt (MW) versus 5-10 acres per MW for nuclear operations and 19 acres per MW for coal power plants..