The unaccounted load at the power plant

It is common for all of us to have read or heard that CUC has the worst, ineffective customer phone service ever, most likely too that most of us presume that this is true until you are done reading the things you need to know of this particular issue, hopefully as much as I can relate personally here.

When the power goes out, most of us instinctively made it a priority to grab the phone and call the power plant, (don’t be surprised if others can even do it in the dark), before lighting up any candle or any other non-electrical source of portable power, in a mood geared enough to bad-mouth whoever is the unlucky power plant individual willing to listen whilst maintaining civility and professionalism against any odds to at least explain the unexplainable, dismal situation of our old, tired and overused, and ever-failing engines at CUC.

At the power plant side, they possibly opt to take a number of options to handle this, just keep the phones ringing while priorities are being handled, that is to put back the power whenever possible at the soonest and answer later, or the least desirable but most effective option particular to this, unplug the phone while things of more importance was being tackled. Here are some things that our readers should know.

We could not ever rule out that every time we experience discomfort in any form caused by loss of power, we get frustrated, annoyed to the max, angry enough that most of us could not take time to pause and understand why it should happen.

Old engines by nature are prone to failure, as it goes beyond its prescribed useful life, the entire positive output it can give after, translates as a bonus.

For being an engine as cold as it is when it refuses to work or burning hot when pushed more to its limit, no operator can ever control it once it behaves badly, and common sense dictates that this should be well understood.

Now, while you are holding your phone receiver for 15 minutes or so listening to that seemingly endless ringing waiting for somebody to answer, (you are not alone with this kind of experience), don’t picture out that at the other end there is somebody relaxing next to a ringing phone just because he deemed incoming calls are not that important, the highest probability is, a lot of individuals in there, some even overlapped to the next eight-hour duty due to lack of manpower, in their five-lb, standard pair of safety shoes are busy running around crisscrossing the whole 300-feet or more of dirty, slippery, unforgiving floor, inherent to old power plants, not to mention the need to climb back and forth vertically, from basement up to the third floor as the work requirement compounded the necessity, that one has to endure and has to do to restore normalcy as quickly as possible.

And just when everything possible was exhaustively done, it is possible to end up to the point of realizing that the trouble was bigger than initially thought, that the fixing does not require hours but days, at this juncture with solemn contention and surrender, some of them are generous enough to choose picking up the phone for you, ready to listen and give the relief you want for your anger. Pardon my analogy, but power plant workers are not much different to soldiers, give them the best and right equipment and they will win the war for you, deprive them of that and you should know what to expect.

This appreciation does not exclusively refer to those people inside the power plant only, this equally applies to all the hard-working people of CUC, not to mention the line crews in the field, that instead of the 70+ decibels of noise that surrounds anyone inside the power plant all the time, the hazards of darkness, or strong rain be it carried by a typhoon or a milder west monsoon rain, or the ever-burning high noon of unforgiving heat under the sun, these people most of the time are required to move at great distances as quickly as possible between feeders, and then as if their dedication was not enough, they can also have bad experiences, that without a clue through their VHF hand-held radio they can be told to get back quickly to the last feeder they just turned on minutes ago because it was turned off due to another unavoidable power plant emergency.

What these people consistently carry on their shoulders in their line of work is just but acceptable in the field they choose, but to reward them with a curse by an unappreciative consumer is nothing but adding an unnecessary burden on their personal being, as a person like anybody else, they get hurt too.

To let our readers, and the consumers alike know what you are doing, this is my way of saying thank you all to CUC people, for being that resilient, unperturbed under attacks by some irresponsible consumers due to lack of understanding.

By the way, I forgot to mention that I reside in one of the feeder area possibly classified as one of those sacrificed villages, because notably I could count the hours that our power is ON, rather than it is OUT as I lost track how many times were they since then. Each time I lighted a candle I have the feeling that my gesture is pretty much sympathetic with what is happening to those people at the power plant, to my relief mine is less burdensome, walking around with my featherweight sandal, in a very silent most of the time surroundings, surely not under the rain, can unplug my phone, and go back to sleep.