‘National GREED Corporation’

By Alex P. Vidal

“If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted instantaneously by electricity.”—Samuel Morse

WE can’t blame Iloilo City officials led by Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas and Lone District Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda if they nearly went berserk over the weekend and threatened to declare an Armageddon against the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

Even Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. was alarmed that he was prompted to call for a Zoom conference with the NGCP attended by all stakeholders April 29 to clarify and expedite the resolution of the series of unannounced power interruptions in Panay Island over the week.

The power outages came just when people were being pummeled and tortured by extreme summer heat brought by the terrible climate change, and when Ilonggos were experiencing an awe-inspiring Renaissance in business and investment opportunities.

Unannounced means Ilonggos were caught by surprise and weren’t warned of the abhorrent, irritating, and unpalatable power blackouts, thus sending them to panic and giving them terrible suffering and inconvenience.

If the serious power outages weren’t addressed immediately, more people would carry a heavy cross for the sins of the “National Greed Corporation of the Philippines.”

-o0o-

Investors that have started to marshal their infrastructure, manpower, and technical resources would be discouraged.

Businesses would be crippled. More Ilonggos would get sick and hospitalized due to heat stroke and other related illnesses brought by high body temperature. Appliances will be altogether wrecked.

Infrastructure, Alok Sharman, said is the backbone of economic growth. It improves access to basic services such as clean water and electricity, creates jobs and boosts business.

As the franchise holder and transmission service provider, NGCP is in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s state-owned power grid.

It also controls the supply and demand of power by determining the power mix through the selection of power plants to put online (i.e., to signal power plants to produce power, as power plants will only produce power or feed their power to the transmission grid when directed by NGCP, and updates the daily power situation outlook for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao power grids.

Generation, transmission, and distribution are the three stages in the power supply.

These three components also make up what is called the power or electric grid, which is a network that includes the generating plants, transmission lines, and distribution lines.

-o0o-

There are three power grids in the Philippines—the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao grids.

The process of creating electricity out of primary sources of energy like coal, renewable energy, natural gas, and oil-based sources is called generation.

As of 2017, 50 percent of generation in the country reportedly comes from coal, 24 percent from renewable energy, 22 percent from natural gas, and the remaining 4 percent from oil-based sources. Involved in generation are generation companies like Aboitiz Power, First Gen Corporation, for example.

As electricity is carried through the grids via transmission lines, transmission happens. Think of transmission lines as huge electrical towers that are often erected in vast fields.

Transmission around the country is facilitated by the NGCP, a privately owned corporation.

The electricity finally reaches consumers through distribution.

During distribution, electricity runs through distribution lines, which are smaller towers often seen traversing highways and roads.

Distribution is facilitated by private distribution utilities or by electric cooperatives.

-o0o-

ACTIVE. The 25-34 year old age group is the most sexually active at 135 times a year, followed by the 21-24 year olds (133) and 35-44 year olds (122).

LOUD. Berber monkeys like sex to be loud: 59 percent of the males climax when the female screams during sex. When she stays quite, only 2 percent of males orgasm. (Desutsches Primazentrum Goettingen)

CNN has reported that more than 2 million species are believed to exist in the Earth’s oceans, but only about 240,000 have been described by scientists, according to the Ocean Census. The huge gaps in our knowledge of the ocean have unsettled researchers for decades, prompting them to now launch a global mission to explore the uncharted depths of the deep-sea ecosystem.

TWITTER WOES. Six months after Elon Musk took control of Twitter, the future of the company and the platform have never been less certain. After acquiring the social media platform for $44 billion in late October, Musk reportedly now values Twitter at around $20 billion — and some analysts believe that estimate is likely high. Additionally, Musk has laid off 80% of Twitter’s staff and is allegedly failing to pay some of its bills, according to multiple lawsuits.

This comes as Musk’s primary growth strategy through an overhauled subscription strategy has resulted in much chaos and a limited number of actual subscriptions. Twitter has also lost several top advertisers, and a number of users, celebrities and media organizations have said they plan to leave. One of the latest corporations to ditch the platform is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, North America’s largest transportation network serving millions of metro and bus passengers in New York and connecting states. (CNN’s 5 THINGS)

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)