THE Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc. (Ceneco) doesn't deserve any brownie points for service delivery.
The term "brownie points" is a quaint Americanism for an imaginary award given to someone who does good deeds or tries to please.
On one hand, Ceneco is far better than Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) on public relations. At least, its social media account is interactive.
The power utility has informed its consumers that maintenance activities will be conducted on April 13, Friday. This is to ensure the stability of distribution lines to avoid further serious damages that will result in major interruptions.
Affected areas are those under Reclamation Feeder 1:
- Asdes Gonzaga Feeder 5
- RF1 between San Juan St. and Lacson St., Bacolod City.
- AGF5 Gonzaga (Substation -Lopez-Jaena St.)
- Lopez-Jaena St. (Gonzaga St. -Rosario St.)
- Luzuriaga St. (Lopez-Jaena St.-Mabini St.),
- Rosario St. (Lopez-Jaena St.-Doña Juliana St.)
- Lizares St. (Libertad St., before UNO-R)
- Libertad St. (Margarita-Police Station 6)
- City Engineer's Compound, portion of City Heights, Taculing Road (Police Station 6-Garces Subd.)
- Taculing Court, Sanitarium Hospital
- St. Francis Subd., Purok 5, Puentebella
- Sta. Lucia Village, Forest Park Village, Garces Subd.
- Thass II, Lizares Subd., part of City Heights.
It might be the best but those living in the affected areas know they will suffer from a power outage.
However, Ceneco is not forthcoming with unscheduled brownouts. I scrolled down its Facebook page. Nothing, Nada. Zilch apology.
Last Wednesday, I was in the middle of a Zoom conference, a modern enterprise online communications, based on the cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems.
I was talking with my colleagues from the Non-Timber Forest Product-Exchange Programme scattered in Bacolod, Metro-Manila, Indonesia and the Netherlands. Despite some glitches, the participants can keep abreast on the issues being discussed.
Then Wham! I lost contact. Brownout. I became incommunicado. I have to use my Android to text Llana Domingo, our operations director.
Theoretically, I could continue participating since Zoom can access PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android, so long as I can connect via a modem or use the more expensive data.
Well, that's it. My worst fear. Unscheduled brownout during crucial moments where almost everything hinges on a fundamental resource: electric power. A chain is as strong as its weakest link. And Ceneco is the weakest.
The world is moving fast forward with the latest apps. With brownouts, to quote a Bacolod-based European expat, Bacolod is not a third world city. It's the fourth world.
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)