About five years ago I came and spent about 4 weeks here in Uganda in my home town. At the time we in our neighbourhood were all linked to the electricity gird. At the time electricity would operate by a load-shedding system, whereby, power was distributed in rations. Some times we would get power for only three days in a week, and if one was in the house and power went out, they knew it would come back no sooner than the following day or worse after two days. It was very unpredictable.
But that was all in the past: five to ten years ago. Today the supply is so consistent that I am able to predict any likely power outages and the duration of the outage. Usually, the company will put out public announcements alerting us of the planned maintenance schedules, and even in those cases they ensure that power is never out for more than 24 hours (12 hours tops). Furthermore, in the situation where we have unplanned power-cuts, it doesn't last for more than 6 to 12 hours, in many cases just a few minutes (5 -10 minutes).
This is huge for Ug. Businesses both big and small are the first to benefit from this since it is predictable and therefore reliable. Whatever it is that they did to solve the load shedding situation, I find myself pleased with the way things are now as I would probably lose it without electricity.
-Today power went out around 8 pm; just after it had rained, and I kept saying that it would be back in the next 5 minutes and what do you know, in 5 minutes (give or take a few) it was back, the candle wasn't even on for a minute.