計画停電/ Planned Power Outages: Continued
I talked in my earlier posts about the planned power outages in our area.
The affected areas have been broken up into 5 groups, with power outages at fixed times each day. They've released a tentative schedule for this month, where you can see that each group - we are Group Five - moves up one spot every day. For instance: yesterday, Group Five's power outage was during the 6:20 - 10pm block. Today, we were scheduled for 3:20 - 7:00. They don't cut the power in the middle of the night, I guess because that wouldn't conserve much power.
Thankfully, they've been canceling a lot of the planned outages. We always check online the night before to see if there are any changes to the schedule, but sometimes they don't announce it until a couple hours before the power is scheduled to go out.
Today our power outage was canceled, but last night's was not. It's great for 9-to-5 company workers when they have power and can work a full day, but it's a pain when we have to bundle up, leave the house, eat dinner out, and stay out until the power comes back on. We have not yet attempted to cook dinner by candlelight or anything.
Since my last post, I've also found out that Tokyo - 22 of the 23 wards - (and some areas near Yokohama station) are not experiencing power outages at all. The power company has stated that they will be expanding each of the current 5 groups to include 5 subgroups, for a total of 25 groups, and there has been speculation that the previously unaffected areas will start receiving power outages under this system.
Anyway, we've been going to Yokohama station to hang out when our outages fall in the evening. Yesterday, while browsing a large store, we thought offhandedly to look for flashlights. And that was how we found out that everyone's buying up all of those, too.
The stores in our area are starting to return to normal, seeming to be open normal hours when there are no outages, and opening (even for a short time) every day even when there are. But there are still certain food items that are being bought disproportionately, though it's no longer a situation where there's not a single loaf of bread left on the shelves. And many of the stores in Yokohama - clothing stores, even those around the station - are closing as early as 6 pm.
So far, they're finding they have more power than expected (evidently, they're getting some of their thermal power plants up and running again, and they're urging people to cut down on their electrical usage at home) so hopefully we can expect fewer outages from here on out. Recently, however, they did say that they expected to have to continue power outages through the summer months. I can only imagine, but a summer here without AC just sounds intolerable. -__-
The affected areas have been broken up into 5 groups, with power outages at fixed times each day. They've released a tentative schedule for this month, where you can see that each group - we are Group Five - moves up one spot every day. For instance: yesterday, Group Five's power outage was during the 6:20 - 10pm block. Today, we were scheduled for 3:20 - 7:00. They don't cut the power in the middle of the night, I guess because that wouldn't conserve much power.
Thankfully, they've been canceling a lot of the planned outages. We always check online the night before to see if there are any changes to the schedule, but sometimes they don't announce it until a couple hours before the power is scheduled to go out.
Today our power outage was canceled, but last night's was not. It's great for 9-to-5 company workers when they have power and can work a full day, but it's a pain when we have to bundle up, leave the house, eat dinner out, and stay out until the power comes back on. We have not yet attempted to cook dinner by candlelight or anything.
Since my last post, I've also found out that Tokyo - 22 of the 23 wards - (and some areas near Yokohama station) are not experiencing power outages at all. The power company has stated that they will be expanding each of the current 5 groups to include 5 subgroups, for a total of 25 groups, and there has been speculation that the previously unaffected areas will start receiving power outages under this system.
Anyway, we've been going to Yokohama station to hang out when our outages fall in the evening. Yesterday, while browsing a large store, we thought offhandedly to look for flashlights. And that was how we found out that everyone's buying up all of those, too.
The stores in our area are starting to return to normal, seeming to be open normal hours when there are no outages, and opening (even for a short time) every day even when there are. But there are still certain food items that are being bought disproportionately, though it's no longer a situation where there's not a single loaf of bread left on the shelves. And many of the stores in Yokohama - clothing stores, even those around the station - are closing as early as 6 pm.
So far, they're finding they have more power than expected (evidently, they're getting some of their thermal power plants up and running again, and they're urging people to cut down on their electrical usage at home) so hopefully we can expect fewer outages from here on out. Recently, however, they did say that they expected to have to continue power outages through the summer months. I can only imagine, but a summer here without AC just sounds intolerable. -__-