Electricity Cost

[BrettGC]

So as I sit and watch Bam Bam's State of the Nation address he mentions mechanisms are now in place to prevent "price-shock" for consumers.. 

This goes up and down more than a grooms arse:  

June - July

 

Last 12 months:

I wish I could start a business that can raise prices by 67% in a month.  For the Aussies, that's about 41c/kWh, Ergon is currently charging about 34c/kWh for its general use tariff.  Yes, I understand that the pricing is largely out of the respective co-ops' control.  

NORECO 1:  "Nothing to see here, move along".

In the same breath he mentioned that provincial areas should no longer experience unscheduled outages due to the new inter-island backbone...... Hahahahahahaha.  I will admit, it's not as common as it once was but there's still at least one or two outages for at least an hour a week plus random power flips and the every four to six week scheduled maintenance that lasts from 6 to 18 hours. Yesterday's for example:

Roll on the solar and battery system... Hopefully by the end of the year. 

Edit:  And before the comments relating to "Just move then".  Nope, I don't like cities, I never have.  I accept the pricing and outages as a trade-off for the lifestyle here.  I just found it amusing that the pricing was posted on FB, just a couple of hours prior to Bam-Bam's address. 

Edited July 22 by BrettGC

[Mike J]

I think those big price sparks were the really hot months and the power companies had to buy additional power on the spot market.  Companies will forecast power needs and sign contracts for X amount of additional power if they cannot generate it themselves.  They tend to buy a conservative amount as they pay for the power even if they do not need it.  If they have excess capacity they will sell it on the spot market.  I don't think anyone expected those months to be breaking heat records.

[Jack Peterson]

 For me, It is what it is, we choose to live here, if people can afford solar Ok but for many  especially the Locals  all just have to grin and bare it 

[Snowy79]

I had to chuckle reading they were thinking of using an undersea power line from Luzon to Mindoro the brown out capital of the Philippines, to supply additional electricity just after Luzon had been putting out Amber alerts due to running out of surplus power. 

[spaul]

I don't mind the costs as much as I can't stand the micro brownouts that have been happening everyday for the past two weeks. Power will just turn off and back on randomly. Sometimes several times a day. I'll be right in the middle of something and the computer craps out.

I still don't understand what that is or how it happens? Maybe its a power surge?

[Mike J]

11 hours ago, spaul said:

I don't mind the costs as much as I can't stand the micro brownouts that have been happening everyday for the past two weeks. Power will just turn off and back on randomly. Sometimes several times a day. I'll be right in the middle of something and the computer craps out.

I still don't understand what that is or how it happens? Maybe its a power surge?

You might consider getting a battery backup for your computer.  Power surge can harm them as well as you loosing your work input.

[Tommy T.]

4 minutes ago, Mike J said:

You might consider getting a battery backup for your computer.  Power surge can harm them as well as you loosing your work input.

You can find some on Lazada that - for me - work quite well so you have time to work a bit longer or shut down in a reasonable time. The ones I bought cost something like 3-4k pesos.

[Mike J]

3 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

You can find some on Lazada that - for me - work quite well so you have time to work a bit longer or shut down in a reasonable time. The ones I bought cost something like 3-4k pesos.

That is where I bought mine, do not remember the price but recall it was quite reasonable.

[spaul]

Thanks for the tip.

I got a surge protector for my fridge, which is more like a delay switch. I've heard of people's fridges dying because of the power surge that happens when the power is out longer than a few minutes. I actually fried two of my laptop power adapters since I got here last year. My previous landlord told me to unplug everything when there's a brownout because of the power surge. Just got the fridge, so I'm not interested in having to replace it.

Will definitely look into the battery backup for the computer now that my laptop is non-functional. It was old anyway.

[Tommy T.]

Another side note regarding UPS - uninterruptable power supplies. Recently, one of mine that has had the most use - as in so many times to run our cctv system when there were power outages and then to recharge, put out a warning tone. I looked it up in the owner's manual and it said that indicated end of life for the battery. As a chronic DIY guy, I opened up the power supply and found a rather standard 12 volt battery. I removed it, noted the designations on it regarding voltage, capacity, etc. Then I went to Lazada and found an exact replacement very quickly. I took the plunge (you never know with Lazada if what you buy is real or fake) and ordered one. Two weeks later it arrived (from China, where else?). I installed it and, so far, it seems to be the real thing. It cost only about 600+/- pesos delivered. That's a lot less than replacing the entire power supply for 5 or 6 k pesos.

Just a word to the wise.