Psst... brownouts are back

umm, okay... whatever you say. 

I hope this rotating brownouts would not last more than the "few days" projected by the Manila Electric Company (Meralco). It's getting warmer here now and it would be miserable for us consumers to have to do without electricity this summer.

I know it's just for a few hours each day, but doing without aircon or electric fan in 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) heat, is no laughing matter. I would be ridiculously relieved if this problem with the power grids could be resolved quickly.

from the Manila Bulletin:

Simultaneous technical trouble and forced outages at three of the country's major coal plants have plunged anew the Luzon grid into debilitating two to three hours of rotating brownouts for the next five days. The brownouts, happening for the second time since the start of the year, have been causing not only extreme inconvenience to the public but also resulting in opportunity losses for businesses.

System operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced that one unit of the Sual plant of 600-megawatt capacity and another one unit of 300-MW capacity of the Masinloc plant have been on forced outages due to technical failure since Sunday night.

More here.