When one goes dark, another lights up

by Jezrael Tagapulot

Though branded as the center of excellence in the North, the frequent power outage that continues to loom over Baguio city-- dimming the light of every student learner to perform their academic responsibilities.

As the sole entity who supplies electricity, Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) is the main source of the city's power supply. However, residents don't appreciate their work because of their mediocre performance in supplying electricity due to the enormous power outage in the city.

𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆

Recently, numerous power outages have been circulating in Baguio City. One reason for this is due to the shortage of electricity—not enough to support the consumption of all residents.

This became worse because of how BENECO mismanaged their corporation. It suffered from a 342M debt to their supplier that led them to reduce power consumption by having unscheduled power interruptions which residents, especially students, are the most vulnerable.

No electricity also means no internet connection. This makes life harder for students like me, who have online classes and academic responsibilities to finish. With the absence of electricity, I have to go to cafes or establishments with WiFi, which most of the time are expensive, just to seek convenience to charge my gadgets to be able to finish my homeworks.

When there is no WiFi, students are forced to purchase cellular loads and use the data which is obviously more expensive and not budget-friendly. Another downside is the very weak connection that users experience in using their data because wireless internet access is usually disrupted by the communications towers that also lose their power.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀

The frequent looming in the city gave rise to the surfacing of the Man-asok Project. It is an initiative by the private sector which aims to build a dam at Agno River to provide an additional source of water and electricity in Baguio City.

While the project can be helpful in minimizing power outages in the city, especially for electrically dependent students, the creation of a dam will only do more harm than good.

It compromises the state and environmental condition of barangays near Agno River. The dam will only cause massive destruction to the landforms and bodies of water. Resources that come in landforms and bodies of water are the main sources of income for the people living in Baguio City. Aside from that, the major disadvantages of the dam are displacement, loss of livelihood, and far relocation.

The project is a potential mechanism to solve the water and electricity problems of the city, but it raises even more problems that people living in the rural areas have to suffer from.

In addition, the government also made a plan to address the electricity outage: to turn waste products into renewable sources of energy. While futuristic, this high cost plan is too good to be true. It promotes more plastics that can worsen climate change. Burning plastics is inefficient because it uses more power to burn the waste the energy generated when incinerating it.

𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲

The projects planned and made by the government and private sector can help BENECO to reduce the power outage and sustain the power consumption. However, the BENECO should also have a plan in addressing the issue because they are the ones responsible for the power outage.

It is a good thing on the other hand that BENECO offers scheduled power interruptions announcements to inform the residents when to charge their phones or when to expect brownouts. But most of the time, power outages are unexpected and unfair. Despite having to pay regularly, other barangays evidently suffer from frequent power outages than the others.

Power outages need to be addressed—it has been a long time since it became a crisis here in Baguio City and to resolve, BENECO needs to be called out. Aside from having a good plan, the board of directors should be responsible, fair, and man enough to manage the electric cooperatives. Without a good leader on board, the cooperative is bound to fail in every aspect of the service they provide.