I posted earlier about load-shedding in My Uganda(Load-shedding the Good Old Days,22-Feb-2011), where I talked about how things have improved in the power supply department, but about a week ago UMEME the electricity supplier in My Uganda sent me an SMS (I'm not sure how they got my number), telling me that they would start load-shedding because of a shortage in generation at their suppliers. This is the message they sent:
UMEME: Dear customer, we regret to inform you that UETCL has informed us of a generation short fall of 50MW(peak) resulting into both day(6am-6pm) and night(6am-6am)emergency load-shedding. Call ******** for details. We regret all inconveniences.
It turns out that the Government did not want to renew a contract with the company supplying that extra 50MW. They instead intend to contract the Bugagali power plant some time later this year. So until then it seems we are going to have to content with the load-shedding, which happens on alternate days and nights at 6am-6pm and 6pm-6am.
Here is the story on the Bugagali power plant taken from Wikipedia:
- Completion of the project is expected in 2012, although partial power generation may start as early as 2011.[7] In February 2011, the New Vision newspaper, Uganda's leading daily publication, reported that the first 50MW will become available in October 2011 and the subsequent 50MW additional units will become available every two to three months until the final addition in April 2012.[8]
So when power goes out and you’re at a loss for things to do, and you can't sleep because of the power nap you had earlier, here are some seemingly odd yet, as you will realize, sufficiently useful hour-hand pushers.
... Things to do when power goes out in My Uganda:
1. Turn on the battery powered FM radio and find a foreign music station, Oriental /Arabic music preferably.
2. Make paper needles and mend the little tears on your mosquito net.
3. You can lookout the window and take in the beautiful moonscape. This works best when thefull-moon is out.
4. After midnight if you still haven't dosed off prepare a filling snack under candle light and danceabout while your eating to the strange but enjoyable music playing on your radio.
- These are some of the things you can do to help stop you from loosing your mind :-).