Living and working in Goa and electricity How does the absence of reliable electricity affect your work and life? Can an estimate be made of the economic cost to individual and community because of the dreadful state of electricity generation and distribution in Goa? Can a case be made collectively about the state electricity board that its negligence is a net drain on the Goan economy?
Goanetters are certain to have considered these questions every time their lights go off, whether because of scheduled 'load shedding' or otherwise. I do believe this is an issue that can be taken up collectively provided some data is available about the quality and quantity of power that reaches our homes, offices and industrial units. The context of this post is the frequent power cuts, scheduled or not, that I have experienced in the village of Betim since my return to Goa late this April (2005). Discounting visits, I last lived in Goa in 1996, and recall the general condition of infrastructure episodically - in the mid-1990s, in 1990-91, in the mid-1980s. Although conditions are not as trying as they were 10 and 20 years ago, compared with the development of basic infrastructure elsewhere in the country Goa is backward, the apparently admirable socio-economic indices notwithstanding. There are no doubt a range of factors responsible for keeping the general standard of living conditions lower than they should be - and the grossly irresponsible politics practiced here is certainly a key element - but it is possible that consumer pressure has simply not been relentless enough, or organised enough, to effect change, however small. It was a conversation on the telephone, last Saturday, with some staff at the 'Saligao feeder' that led me to consider the need for a system of recording what we are receiving through the mains, and what we are not. Thre was an unannounced power cut all day in Betim, Verem, some areas of Pilerne, Alto Betim and Porvorim. Towards evening when the power hadn't yet been restored, I was able to get an electricity department staff member on the line. He said the feeder station had begun delivering power a short while earlier. I told him Betim and Verem, at that very moment, were dark. He however insisted his station was functioning normally. A recording device that generated data about power would have been very helpful. Electrical / electronics engineers on this list could weigh in on this aspect, for what I imagine will be most useful is a device as follows: * The Mains Recorder (a working name for the device) needs to be plugged in to a working electrical socket, preferably a grounded one. * It needs to record the periods when power is not available, and otherwise sample the voltage when power is. To do this it will need to draw from an internal source of power such as a lithium battery, of the kind that powers a typical wristwatch. Since scheduled all-day 'load shedding' outages often last for up to 10 hours and more, the onboard battery will need to supply the device for such a stretch. Alternately, a rechargeable battery series (like the ones used in cordless telephones) can be used, although this will make the Mains Recorder bulky. * The device can be set to record the voltage at intervals, for example every 5 minutes. This data will need to be written to a recording medium, such as a flash memory chip, of the kind that are used in digital cameras. An off-the-shelf medium such as this may keep costs down, but that's just a guess as I have not sufficient knowledge about the means with which voltage can be sampled by the device and written. There are likely other, cheaper, alternatives. However, flash memory card readers are fairly commonplace now as peripherals or built into laptops. * The question then is how the data is to be read off the card. I imagine anyone with experience in programming and reading from GIS or GPS systems, for example, would have a better idea of how this can be made possible. This will be a software problem. * There will also be problems related to voltage spikes - how is one to protect the Mains Recroder from what it is measuring? * This data, collected over say a month and from a half dozen (or more) locations around Goa that suffer from low quality, low reliability power, will I think help a community make a case for more accountability from an agency that is responsible for a vital element of our infrastructure. This will move argument from the subjective to hard fact. A voltage recording system is in fact built into several brands of UPS, and when interfaced with a PC or laptop through the dedicated software that is provided with the UPS system, gives the user such data. The system that I use however (APC) does not allow readings to be regularly taken and recorded, and even if it did, they would be limited to when the PC was switched on. It's entirely likely that a device like a Mains Recorder exists in one form or another. If so, can list members provide information? Your reactions, comments, suggestions and solutions will, as always, be most valuable. Regards, Rahul ________________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Goa, India : +91 9321027684 / +91 832 2417847
