US seeks RP advice on solving power outages
17 January 2004 

By Myrina M. Velasco

It's a case of the world "super power" banking on a perceived expertise of a third world country.

This, as the United States reportedly sought the advice of Philippine energy officials in solving its own blackout woes which struck New York and other northeastern areas last year.

Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez disclosed that one of the key points of discussion with visiting US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, was the latter's eagerness to dig out information on the strategies being employed every time the Philippine would experience system wide blackouts.

It would be noted that the New York power crisis tragedy was being blame to a proposed inefficient transmission system, which they aptly described as something that is more fitted for a third world country.

In August last year, the northeastern part of the United States experienced the most serious electricity blackout in its history. The fall of three transmission lines left 50 million Americans and Canadians without electricity for more than 36 hours.

New York was without electricity for 29 hours and it took two days for normality to be restored.

The incident has prompted US policymakers to revisit their exiting energy policies, and this set off discussions on their proposed Comprehensive Energy Bill now pending for deliberations by its Congress.

"We talked about information sharing on how we were able to solve our own power crisis.like how we fixed the Luzon-wide blackouts," Perez said.

He said further information sharing have been agreed by the two countries; but he did not specify on the strategies and techniques that they shared with the US energy official.

It would be noted that in years 2001 and 2002, three successive massive power outages rendered entire Luzon powerless; and these were primordially traced to some glitches in the transmission network.

It is a known fact, however, that these were not the worst blackouts ever experienced in the Philippines .

It has its own share of a horrible power crisis in the early 90's which triggered an awful pinch in its economy.

In fact, energy regulations from all over the globe have been shifting attention on policies that will address a looming contagion of blackouts; given some current problems hounding various power markets.

It has been pointed out those planned or unannounced electric outages which affected a number of countries in recent months, combined with the risk of similar interruptions affecting other countries, have already been pushing questions on security of supply in liberalizing energy markets into the mainstream.

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