A very incomplete page on the ABS-CBN News Online site points to a TV ad explaining how system loss works (please google the brouhaha about MERALCO -- the Manila power utility owned by the Lopezes [who also own ABS-CBN, Manila Water, Sky Cable, etc . . . .heheh])
In case you haven't seen it, the add features a very prominent Pinoy actress (also owned by ABS-CBN) telling us that system loss is like the water that melts off the ice we buy (most Pinoys buy ice from mom-and-pop stores) mostly for our iced drinks.
Which is a way of telling us that the ice water is part of the ice we buy and ergo, we should not balk if it's part of the cost we pay (cos we could have used it if it didn't melt away -- maybe we should put it in our iced colas as well -- "you bought it, you pay for it, you use it").
Analogies have their limits though. Water off the ice, on one hand, still reaches our homes and we could still use it (albeit not as ice -- but still water just the same). On the other (cookie grasping) hand, system loss is not part of the electricity that reaches our homes. We can't use it for other purposes -- not even as static electricity to raise our hairs [they raise our hairs more effectively by their gall].
The analogy should only apply to them, not us. System loss is not really part of the electricity we buy -- it's part of what the power companies buy but not passed on to us. And since they think they're not getting what they paid for [poor companies, boohoo], they want to recover part of that loss by sneaking it into our bills -- and then (heheh) government taxes us the system loss as part of VAT -- so it's not really system loss after all -- it's system found [VAT on a VAT -- wart on a wart]. Their main justification is that they recover only 10% of the money [take note, not power] lost if they pass it on to us. They think we can still bear it without a complaint -- Pinoys are a longsuffering lot.
Incidentally, the famous actress is also promoting a slimming food supplement (take note, no approved therapuetic effects -- read: "you can't sue our ass if da ting don't work."). And shows off her (once chubby) body as evidence. Why, it's system loss as well -- her body lost her (more than 20-years old) baby fat and it's her gain. Now she can charge higher fees. And she gains by showing us the misapplied analogy between power system loss and ice melt-off and how it's part of what we bought.
They lose, they regain, we lose.
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