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Sally had a bad head.
She had been banging it on the wall all day, and some of yesterday, and a bit of the day before that. In fact she had been banging her head for a long time.
She had been trying to make sense of the electricity supply to her house.
Her friends all said the same. “Don’t try and make sense of it, it will send you mad”.
She wouldn’t listen. She needed order in her life. She needed the fridge to work and the lights to turn on at night. In fact she needed civilisation as she knew it. At least her electric toothbrush runs on batteries.
Her hair curlers, however, were another matter. She would just get one side done and “pop” the power would be off leaving her with a somewhat unusual hair style. Sort of July Garland one side, Cher the other. Her love life was suffering.
Alas, this is Bali and trying to make sense of it all had made her a bit of a head banger. Her doctor diagnosed a severe case of Power Loss Neurosis (PLN).
The fact is that here in Paradise the electricity is a bit thin. Not like that wonderful stuff you get in Britain or Australia with 240 wonderful volts to shove up yer chuff.
Of course 240 is luxury but it is possible to make do with less, after all Americans are still living under wartime restrictions with an allowance of only 110 volts and they seem to manage alright.
In Bali there are so many people wanting to chill out, have a cold beer and watch the footy that there simply aren’t enough volts to go around so everyone has to make do with less. (In Sanur they ran out years ago but still carry on issuing more)
Not only that but the few volts that are around are tired before they get here. It’s the long journey from Surabaya that’s to blame. By the time they arrive in Bali they are all pretty knackered. Electrical wisdom says that power stations have a limit as to how far electricity can be transmitted effectively. The limit is around 400 kilometres.
Our national electricity supplier PLN promise an adequate 220 volts but unfortunately your home supply may drop as low as 180 volts. Your computers and air conditioners don’t like it and flourescent lights take forever to switch themselves on!
PLN are under pressure and are struggling for solutions. Have you noticed how they have toned down the lingo. It’s rather like the military jargon “collateral damage” when they mean “we have killed civilians” or how about “killed by friendly fire”. When has fire ever been friendly? It is all to do with softening the words to be more palatable. Here In Indonesia they don’t have “blackouts” they have “brownouts”. Brownout! what do they mean “brownout?” Are PLN trying to muddy the issue, to suggest that when your power cuts off it is not a black and white issue? Are they suggesting that lights don’t actually go out, they just go really, really dim?
The local authorities have come up with a solution. They switch the lights off at night.
Have you noticed that in different parts of Bali they take turns switching the street lights off. “Last one out switch off the lights” says Made as he leaves work. He doesn’t mean the office – he means half of Kuta!
So what can you do?
Well you could be all romantic and light candles but that tends to put up the birthrate which in turn increases the demand for electricity. Did you know that 9 months after the Nyepi day of silence there is always a jump in the number of babies born? Sorry I digress - again.
You could help by reducing the amount of power you use. Electrical devices that produce or remove heat or carry out mechanical tasks use most power such as pumps, air conditioners, microwaves and toasters. Light bulbs use much less power and those new fangled low wattage bulbs can be driven by a mouse passing wind in a treadmill.
Electronic equipment is not a heavy user of power but tends to be a tad susceptible to being blown to pieces by power surges.
To protect your air conditioners and electronic equipment you can install a voltage regulator which will boost your volts back up to220 but you should realise that to make up the voltage difference you will use a higher current from the PLN supply and it is current, not voltage, that sets off your circuit breakers. A standard voltage regulator for your house will set you back about Rp5,000,000. It must be fitted between the PLN supply and your house distribution box. If you are looking forward to a long and healthy retirement I suggest that you do not ask your pembantu, or the watch salesman from the beach, or that ever so friendly man that would like you to meet his sister, to install it.
You may also consider peaks and troughs in your usage of power. Many things, particularly well pumps and refrigerators, turn on randomly. When things combine you can end up with a sudden high demand of power. So let us say that you are at home with the tele and the air conditioner on. You go to the toilet and the well pump starts, someone is cooking and opens the fridge to take out some bread which sets off the sensor so the fridge compressor starts, the bread is put into the toaster and ……. You get the idea. Within seconds your power usage has increased from perhaps 1.5 kilowatts to 5! It will of course drop quickly as things switch off again but, too late, the circuit breaker has done its job.
For your computer you can buy a small voltage regulator fairly cheaply (maybe RP100.000) but a voltage regulator will not protect your computer from power cuts and you may wish to consider a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) which also includes a battery. For a cost of around RP500,000 a UPS will provide a stable voltage and, if the power cuts, will keep your computer going for about 20 minutes giving you plenty of time to close it down and save that precious 4 hours of work you have just done.
A UPS can save your sanity. No more will you jump up and down and bang your head against the wall cursing the fact that you forgot to back up that last vital chapter of the novel you have been trying to finish for the past thee months. Aaarggghh, I would commit suicide if I could find my razor blade. Where’s that torch?
As for the electricity supply, don’t hold your breath. I think we can be sure that the electricity supply in Bali will be Pretty Likely Nackered for some time to come.
Phil Wilson
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