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Ruffy Magbanua /

THE Movement for Blackout-free Mindanao, a volunteer watchdog for the efficient and uninterrupted delivery of power in Mindanao, has urged Congress to enact a law that would penalize Distribution Utilities (DUs) on the excessive (read: abusive) occurrences of power outages or blackouts in their franchise areas.

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Study shows that power interruptions translate in immense productivity and welfare losses on the part of the consumers.

Protracted electricity outages contribute severe, fareaching, and deleterious consequences to the country’s macro-economy.

Similarly, consumers stand to lose tremendous amounts of welfare should they experience power outages or interruptions.

Measuring the economic and welfare consequences of these power outages would thus serve to further underline the importance of putting forward measures to ensure the reliability of the energy supply – for the economy and Filipino consumers.

In addition, the measurement of these losses would guide policy in the formulation of strategies to enhance system stability and reliability.

Consumers and producers incur various types of costs during a power outage.

Residential electricity users incur welfare losses from being unable to make use of their electronic devices for their leisure or comfort (e.g. television, air-conditioning units, cellular phones, personal computers, etc.).

They also incur costs from having to replace spoiled food and damaged electronics. Alternatively, they incur costs as well from being compelled to purchase backup energy generators, portable batteries, and surge protectors.

In addition, the risk of accidents could be viewed to increase during power outages (e.g. no traffic lights, no street lights, etc.).

Residential electricity users could also be viewed to incur indirect costs. Stress, discomfort, and exhaustion brought about by the power outage could adversely affect their behavior at home and their performance at work.

Firms are viewed to incur tremendous productivity losses during power outages. Power outages would grind production to a halt – especially in machine-intensive manufacturing firms.

In addition, frequent restarts increase the rate of depreciation of household machines and equipment.

The immense cost of power outages should serve as sufficient impetus for both the government and the private sector to redouble existing efforts to guarantee energy sufficiency for the entire Philippine economy.

There is an urgent need therefore to craft a long-term strategy to ensure that the country’s energy generating capacity can keep pace with the growing energy demands of its economy.

The overarching goal and motivation of this measure should be to develop a holistic and integrated energy infrastructure capable of providing sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy to Filipino firms and households.

Time has come for change in the way the energy sector should treat —fairly and squarely — the millions of electric users  with utmost respect  to consumer rights and privileges.

E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com

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