Industrialization of Catanduanes

In one of my short letters to the Tribune I made a comment that as far as industrialization of the province is concerned, unless we do something about our electrical power, we will be limited to the manufacture of handicrafts and not much more. I also suggested that the geothermal power plant in Tiwi is a major source of power that we could tap into. Easier said than done. Four or more hours of research on the internet revealed some very interesting and encouraging facts. The latest data I gathered on Tiwi was printed around the middle of this year. Tiwi is presently generating 350 MW of power. And a lot of that power leaves the Bicol Region to support the national grid. I thought that we should look at this power source for our own power supply in Catanduanes.

What could this mean for Catanduanes? Sufficient, steady and hopefully more affordable power. This means a lot to prospective business owners and manufacturers who will want reliable and affordable power before they set up shop. This could mean a lot to all the citizens of the island. The farmers could, as individuals, irrigate farmlands for increased food production, advanced aquaculture projects that require 24-hr power could be made possible, manufacturing companies that require steady and continuous power will appear and a host of facilities such as hotels and motels will then be able to provide better accommodations with hot water and plenty of power for air conditioning. Refrigeration of a lot of things including farm produce, meat and fish will become affordable. Restaurants will boom and flourish. All these will create a lot of jobs. I would say that as we speak, a number of prospective businesses have considered setting up shop on the island. But upon realizing that there is no steady,sufficient and affordable power, they go somewhere else. Future businesses and manufacturers will need more power than we currently have. And we are not just talking about local businesses but potential multinational ones. None of these would want to set up their businesses on the island, not until we have beefed up our electrical system.

The bulk and backbone of the national economy of the United States are not the big corporations. The small businesses are. The small businesses GENERATE INCOME not just for themselves but for the community by way of salaries to employees and taxes to the local government. Every state of the United States have their own budget which are INTERNALLY GENERATED from taxes and so on. The more financially capable the community, the richer the state becomes. The richer the state the more community services are given back to the people.

What is the point? There are times when local government has to look at the federal or national coffers for certain projects but it is better when local government is GENERATING ENOUGH OR MORE income on its own so it DOES NOT ALWAYS LOOK to the federal or national government for financial assistance. The individual states are and must be SELF SUFFICIENT.

We as people must look for ways on how to GENERATE INCOME FROM WITHIN WITHOUT WAITING FOR DOLE OUTS FROM THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. If national government money ever comes, good, but it is never enough and will never be enough at the rate our national economy is going. We need to strive very hard to become self sufficient. This is how we as a province can fund our own projects, create our own wealth, grow our own economy, achieve our own self sufficiency.

Self sufficiency on the island could be realized by EMPOWERING THE POPULATION. How? By coming up with ways on how to generate income from within AND SUPPORTING ONE ANOTHER IN ALL OUR ENDEAVORS. We have to acquire,as citizens and community, the proper TOOLS needed to produce, create, build. Again in order for us to move forward economically we have to have some very basic infrastructures in place first. Namely, sufficient, reliable and affordable power. This is one of the TOOLS that the community needs to move ahead with progress. In order of priority, this should be at the very top. Just think about this one. Look around us and see if we can find any country or community that is very successful economically and has no reliable, affordable and sufficient power. We will not find one.

The technology now exists to have this POSSIBILITY introduced to the islands. China has recently put into operation one of the biggest power generating plants in the world at the Three Gorges Dam. Twenty six huge generators each capable of producing 700 megawatts of power were recently put into service. The huge power generated at the dam is useless unless it is distributed to the end users. We are talking about hundreds of miles of power lines to accomplish this. This is where the result of my research comes in. Some of the power generated at the Three Gorges Dam are distributed using a system that is more practical and economical to install, maintain and operate as compared to an AC system carrying the same amount of load.
The system is called High Voltage Direct Current or HVDC system. This system can transmit up to 3000 MW of power. A smaller version that can handle power of between 7MW to 350MW is called Light HVDC. The latter is more suited for our island since it will be less expensive than the bigger units and for starters we will need less than 100MW. We should be thrilled to have 50MW of steady power to start with or even a little less?

Why HVDC or Light HVDC? Instead of the high voltage AC system, power transmission is accomplished by converting the high voltage AC to high voltage DC and at a certain point of transmission is converted back to useful AC. The DC link uses converter stations at both ends. Two DC cables form the link and are either buried underground or underwater and in some cases towers are used for aerial transmission. The system is possibly one of the best options available to us if we are to get power from the mainland . We will have no fuel consumption to worry about, no moving parts on any of the equipment save for motors and pumps to cool components perhaps. The power converters are all static. Power generation will no longer be our problem. We simply ‘plug our cable’ into the system and start having more power.

As long as Tiwi is producing power, we can tap into that grid at a point that is the closest possible distance between Catanduanes and the mainland or where the closest AC grid might be. I understand that we are separated from the mainland by a few miles of ocean at the closest point. The system is suited for an efficient way of very long distance transmission of ‘bulk’ power .

Sounds very nice indeed. But ALL NICE THINGS COME WITH A PRICE. This is where we put our heads together, dare to have a vision and make a commitment to accomplish something big no matter how huge the obstacles. Something that will help free ourselves from poverty, something that will become our stepping stone to greater accomplishments in the future.

It has been many many years since I left the island. We had no electricity available where we lived at that time and we were only 3 miles from the town center where there were some light bulbs seen occasionally. Now we have a few more light bulbs to boast about. If someone fires up a few huge 3-phase motors, air condition units and so on, the generators will possibly start to hiccup and die. In another thirty years we will probably have 5 to 10 megawatts of power added to our power grid IF WE GET LUCKY. That is if we do not set our sights on a SPECIFIC ‘target’ megawatt NOW to be made available at a predetermined date in the future and if we as people do not band together and move as ONE and collectively apply ourselves with the greatest determination to accomplish this one specific goal.

Thirty years from now the island will still be in poverty. We NEED TO and MUST break away from poverty. No one is destined be poor forever. And we cannot and should not wait for national government to do this for us. At the rate that the national government is performing, we could wait another fifty years and we would still be in the same predicament that we are now in, if not worse. It is time that we as people create our own destiny. We cannot and should not wait for others to shape our destiny. If we are to succeed, if we are to move forward, if we are to accomplish bigger and better things, if we are to look poverty squarely in the face, if we are to change history on the island…it is UP TO ALL OF US to make it happen.

The American pioneers came penniless but they were full of daring. They dared to dream. They were persistent and they acted on their dreams. Before electricity was discovered they used wind power and water power to run mills. They used what was available to them to advance their situation. When the Taiwanese ran to their little island they did not have too many things left either. Both groups of people had no national government to run to for help. They were being chased down the road by their former countrymen. They were on their own. Yet both excelled in what they wanted to accomplish.

Our challenges are not the same as the challenges these people had to face. We do not have the national government running after us. We have a national government that is for the moment close to paralysis. Our situation on the island is not hopeless. If we move forward together we will not just survive but excel. Now is the time to set this goal. Set our sights on one huge goal that we need so badly to give us a good jumpstart. We need one good-sized ‘morale booster’ of an accomplishment that we could call our own. One goal that will generate income for the whole community. One major goal that will lift us out of the rut we are in. Our attitudes should be such that we will not tolerate any buts and ifs but decide to face this exciting and challenging dream NOW. It is doable! I heard one smart fellow put it this way, ‘MAKE THE DECISION FIRST, THEN SOLVE THE PROBLEM. DO NOT TRY TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM FIRST, THEN MAKE THE DECISION.’

The beauty of our time is that there are so many resources, ideas that we could copy, borrow and utilize. We do not have to re-invent the wheel. So, let me borrow an author’s story on how we went to the moon and how the obstacles that had to be surmounted to accomplish this great human feat were dealt with. The then President John F. Kennedy, determined to outshine the Soviets in the space race, MADE THE DECISION TO PUT MAN ON THE MOON at a predetermined time in the future which was like ‘soon’! He picked one of the best qualified persons to lead the project. Once informed of his new job, the lead person said, “Impossible”! But then he reasoned to himself that if he was going to say that something was impossible, it was only fair that he could say why he thought it was impossible. So, he named all the reasons why. So much ‘engineering’ had to be solved and invented before they could say that the project was doable. The specific challenges were pinpointed. Each challenge was assigned to one special group to solve. Slowly, one at a time, solutions to each problem materialized. Slowly, the ‘impossible’ seemed within reach. Finally, the impossible became possible! As you can see, President Kennedy made the decision first. Then the CITIZENS, motivated by the desire to be the first nation to send man on the moon, solved the problem.

Another great accomplishment in history was the feat led by General Jimmy Doolittle during WWII. President Roosevelt bristled at his admirals and generals for telling him that bombing mainland Japan was NOT within the U.S. forces’ capabilities. He refused to be defeated. He asked everyone present to come up with solutions instead of reasons why the task was not possible. Later, one bright and daring submarine officer came up with the idea of using bombers for the first time on aircraft carriers to deliver the much needed ‘morale boosters’ for America. That one single feat helped turn the tides of the war to our side. Again, a leader MADE THE DECISION FIRST to accomplish something that many deemed impossible. Once the decision was in place, human brains went to work and delivered success. Ladies and gentlemen, I heard that we have something like 200,000 men, women and children on the island. Let us put these brains to work and run after a dream!

‘Ay inay, saen man baga kita makoa nin pilak na pang gastos!’, would be one of the very first questions that will pop up. Great! Someone please grab pen and paper and put that on the list of reasons why the project is deemed impossible. ‘And who would lead the pack to tackle this exciting challenge’? Add this to the list. And who are these folks who might be the experts who will work to find the solutions to the challenges? Write that down too. As we can see the list is growing. Once the list of all the ‘impossibilities’ are in, we can look at each one and start chipping away at them.

Now, I find this challenge extremely exciting. And we do not have to re-invent the wheel. We borrow ideas. The world is full of success stories that started from ‘scratch’ to become huge accomplishments. One very successful businessman and lecturer pointed out that when faced with a huge challenge to build, worry not about the money involved but think on the idea itself. The concept or idea has to be excellent, will fill the need of a lot of people, will return dividends to those who put money into it. Dividends do not always have to be in the form of money. For some very wealthy people, dividends could mean simply the satisfaction of seeing his efforts and assistance materialize and help a group of people or community. Ideas that are excellent attract people with money. The world is full of people with money waiting to be invested in great ideas or projects that will also bring them more money. With a lot of our fellow Catandunganons scattered around the world, the world itself has become our backyard so to speak. We need to knock on people’s doors, make a lot of productive noise, sell our ideas to rich investors, make our island known for its excellent potential.

How did Taiwan finance their economy during their early years? How did mainland China attract all these multinational companies to invest in their country? And what do we have now in our province that we can utilize to attract investors with? If we do not have them in place, do we as people, a province, have the freedom and the will to create policies that will attract outside investors? Tax breaks for the first 10 years of operation? Build operate transfers? Can Catanduanes be made into an international port with its own customs and immigrations departments to facilitate and simplify many things and processes? Products and services from and to overseas locations will bypass the bureaucracies of Manila. Cebu made this a reality and they are doing better than most provinces. California routinely uses bonds to finance huge projects. They get the big money now and use it and pay for it later long term. Schools are sometimes built in cities from additional taxes that are decided by voters in initiatives during local and national elections. On irrigation projects USER FEES are collected and used to pay for construction cost. Once in place and operational, a system like the HVDC, with proper management, will pay for itself from user fees, taxes generated by businesses, taxes from all the jobs created, tourism, you name it.

To build the HVDC link to our island is going to cost a good chunk of money. In 2002 a system 40 kilometers long and delivering 330MW of power was completed creating a link between New England and Long Island, New York. Total cost: $120 million. Our cost should be a small fraction of this amount. And yes, you can say that again. Where in the world are we going to get the money from?

Remember, this is our ‘impossible’ dream. This is a dream that will make the difference between living in below standards conditions for a long time to come or living in comfort and prosperity sometime in the future . Our poor conditions in the province which we have learned to face daily for a long time need to go! We have been humbled by it long enough. We could remain humble people but this time we should be humble and proud BUT NOT HUNGRY! It is not a matter of choice but more of a necessity. This is a dream that we have to have otherwise we are doomed to poverty for the next century. This is one of our greatest challenges. A challenge to our congressman, a challenge to our governor, mayors, the citizenry, thinkers, dreamers . A challenge to all.

I am reminded at this point of a remark made by one of those wise guys I borrow ideas from. He said, ‘I would rather attempt to do something great and fail, than to attempt to do nothing and succeed!’ Succeed in doing nothing. He also said, ‘In order for you to win you have to be in the game!’ We should definitely be IN THE GAME. No buts, no ifs.

Now, folks if I got you just a little excited about this concept, great! All of the above came from one positive, excited and enthusiastic mind. Can you imagine the output of two hundred thousand brains churning out ideas along the same positive direction? That would definitely bring tremendous results.

By the way, the company that builds the HVDCs have a branch office in Manila as well as many other branches around the world. They are indeed at our doorstep. If you have comments to make or questions to ask, please contact me at blackhawk74@yahoo.com. At any rate, let us start turning this dream into reality….together.

Joe Joson