Philippines' ... Balance-Of-Powers

Residents of the western Philippines are being asked to turn off their refrigerators so there will be enough electricity to watch this weekend’s fight between local boxing legend Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jnr.

Rante Ramos, secretary of the electrical cooperative on the island of Palawan, posted the appeal on Facebook on Wednesday, saying that the area faced a power shortfall that might result in an outage on Sunday when the long-awaited fight airs in the Philippines.

“Truth is, come May 3... Palawan grid would still be 2-megawatt short of power supply.

Some circuits may inevitably be switched off,” he warned.

“Collectively we can do something.

On May 3, let’s all voluntarily switch off or disconnect as many appliances as we [can],” he said, asking that about 15,000 homes switch off their refrigerators for a few hours.