Today I had my first experience with what South Africans call "load shedding." The electricity system in South Africa was only designed to support 10% of the population (i.e. the whites). As a result of this and extreme weather conditions, the country experiences intermittent blackouts.
At 10am this morning, all the power went out in our office. Most people expected it, because the state's energy company, Eskom, had issued warnings over the past few days. But no one knew exactly when it would come.
This was a "planned" blackout. Others are unplanned. The other day I was watching SABC news, and a little message ran across the bottom of the screen that said everyone should cut down on their energy use for the next few hours to avoid a blackout. Luckily I got the message in time, and I turned off one of the two lights in my bedroom. Crisis averted!
Eskom said that load shedding will be around for at least the next five to seven years.
Today's blackout only lasted about three hours. It gave me an opportunity to leave work and go grocery shopping in the dark!
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It is hard to know how to comment because everything is so interesting. It almost leaves me speechless. I am sorry to hear about the hard hat. :-) Maybe it is some kind of regulation. Please keep blogging.
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