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Power to the People
Irrawaddy - May 22, 2010
Aye Chan Myate – Burmese people are getting more and more ingenious at finding ways to cope without a reliable power supply. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that China is getting better at cashing in on our electricity-starved lifestyle.
Recently, I spoke with a friend in Burma who told me about the latest "must-have" item on the market: a battery charger with a rotating lever that you can use to power your cell phone for up to an hour.
Costing between 5,000 and 8,000 kyat (US $5-8), this hand-cranked dynamo charger is fast becoming an indispensable addition to the long list of tools used for dealing with the daily blackouts that afflict most of the country outside of the capital, Naypyidaw, where the ruling generals bask in 24-hour-a-day access to electricity.
Already, a typical Burmese household relies on an array of equipment to meet its energy needs, including car batteries, chargers, inverters, generators and transformers.
Needless to say, the device my friend described was made in China. Few Burmese can afford better-made products from Japan or elsewhere, so we have to make do with cheap contraptions produced in Chinese factories or Burmese-made knock-offs.
Perhaps this is China's way of thanking Burma for helping it to meet its own energy needs. After all, since the current regime took over in 1988, Burma's energy output has increased from 529 megawatts (MW) to 2,556 MW, with most of this going directly into China's power grid.
Why aren't we using more of this energy ourselves? Part of the problem is that our economy has barely budged for decades. That means it is more profitable to sell to neighboring countries than to domestic consumers.
A friend of mine who works at the Ministry of Electric Power once told me that the Baluchaung dam in Karenni State could easily meet all of Rangoon's energy needs. The only problem is that this would require new transmission line – something that could be paid for with income from energy exports. But even this seems to be too great an investment for Burma's generals.
It has been two years since I left Burma, and by all accounts, the electricity shortage there has gotten worse. But this has only made people more self-reliant, as they try to find new ways to make up for the shortfall in local power supplies.
When I was younger, it was common to see people using car batteries to power foot-long fluorescent lamps. When the batteries died, they had to be taken to a shop for recharging. But these days, most people have their own chargers and use batteries to run many different types of appliance.
To run most appliances on a car battery, you need an inverter, which converts direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). Inverters started coming onto the Burmese market about 10 years ago. At first, they were imported from China, but these days, Burmese-made inverters with brand names like Matrawnit, Duwon and U Pe Thein are widely available for around 70,000 kyat (US$70).
Unlike the original inverters from China, the Burmese versions typically include a charger, so that the battery is always ready for use whenever the main power supply dies. But this means that you have to be careful not to let the water level – which falls as the battery is being charge – to too low. To prevent damage to the battery, everyone – even the childre – must regularly check to see if the water needs to be topped up.
The ideal in most Burmese homes is to have at least two batteries – the actress May Tha Nu used to say in commercials: "One for the lights, the other for the cassette player." But not everyone can afford such luxury. A 120-volt battery costs around 100,000 kyat ($100), while a 150-volt battery is about 120,000 kyat ($120).
The problem with using car batteries is that the main power supply is so irregular – cutting off every five or 10 minutes – that the battery doesn't know how to store the electricity, often making the inverter useless. Some people then turn to generators to ensure that they have a steady power supply.
Generators vary considerably in size. Some are small enough to be carried by a handle, while others are as big as huts. The smaller ones are used mainly for charging batteries or making sure the TV doesn't go black at an inopportune moment (when I was working for a magazine inside Burma in 2006, I edited a story about a fire caused by a child who spilled petrol while trying to fill a generator so his mother could watch her favorite Korean soap opera).
These home-use generators range considerably in price, from around 80,000 kyat ($80) for a Chinese model to about double that for a Honda. But the real expense is fuel. A liter of gasoline costs 900 kyat ($0.90) and will keep a Honda generator running for just one hour.
For commercial and industrial purposes, however, nothing beats a made-in-Burma diesel-powered generator. These big, noisy machines are ubiquitous in Rangoon's downtown business district and in suburban industrial estates. They aren't cheap, but unlike Chinese generators, they are built to last.
Apart from the general lack of electricity in Burma, another problem is voltage fluctuations. Usually, the voltage is too low, especially for businesses, so there is a great demand for step-up transformers. But power surges are also common, so many people buy regulator – transformers that automatically increase or decrease voltage to maintain a steady output.
Transformers can cost as little as 50,000 kyat ($50) or as much as 500,000 kyat ($500). In effect, they are used to steal electricity from the local power grid. If one house has a transformer, it will get more electricity, while its neighbors will get less. So as more and more people get transformers, they are becoming less useful.
These days, some homes even have computers. But in Burma, computer users must always have a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to cope with abrupt power cuts. A UPS will give you enough time to shut down your computer properly if the main power supply dies; without it, your machine could suffer irreparable damage.
At the other end of the technological spectrum, even simple lighting presents difficulties in Burma. People put candles and lighters in several places around their homes so they always know where to find them when they're needed. But for reading at night, especially under a mosquito net, candles can be dangerous, so these days small rechargeable LED lamps are a popular option.
A Chinese-made lamp with 20 LED bulbs costs just 1,500 kyat ($1.50) and emits enough light for reading, but not much else. It's very convenient, but as with most products imported from China, it typically lasts only a few weeks before it breaks down.
For most Burmese, life is almost unthinkable without all the extra gadgets that help them to make the most of their limited access to electricity. Some may even feel a grudging gratitude toward China for supplying many of the things that make life bearable in one of the world's most power-starved countries.
But they would probably be much happier if they could do without all of these devices and enjoy the kind of reliable power supplies that are available even in remote corners of China – courtesy, in large part, of Burma.
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