Reasons of Frequent Brownout in Oriental Mindoro

“No more brownout tonight, we had enough power interruptions today.” That’s the common remarks of some electric consumers in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

Many had asked, “why such frequent brownout?” Oh yea, who wouldn’t get irritated with 2-3 or more times power interruptions in a day. It destroyed the CPU of my desktop computer at home; it broke down my computer’s UPS at the office which left me two days with no computer working on my paper works. Our air conditioning unit (ACU) in the office had been repaired several times due to voltage upsurges and fluctuations. 

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If you listen to the people around, you’d hear similar endless complaints. But, wait a minute. Before we cast all the blame to Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (ORMECO), for all the bad consequences of power interruptions in the province, let’s find out their reasons why. 

Here is the report of their reasons for the frequent brownout in Oriental Mindoro. It was published in the 2013 first issue of Tanglaw, ORMECO official publication. 

On page 4, it was written that the electricity supply shortfall was due to the following reasons: 

1. Diminishing water flow that runs the two mini-hydroelectric power plants. Consumers should understand that it would take certain amount of water for the turbines to rotate. 

2. The Global Power Holdings (GPH) engine broke down. Perhaps (not so sure) one of their power providers that produces electric power using diesel-operated electric generators. 

3. Conduct of preventive maintenance of some electric power plants. 

4. Increasing demand of electricity supply due to hot weather during summer. 

They said that the Rotational Brownout might last until June. The paper explained that other provinces are experiencing the same problems of power interruptions that even last up to 8 hours specially those in Mindanao. 

Read Tagalog version here: Mga Kadahilanan ng Palagiang Brownout sa Oriental Mindoro