POWERLESS IN THE STREET: When energy fails, neighbourliness and generators kick in By J Brooks Spector parkhurst1
If we didn’t already know it, by now we have all learnt yet again just how dependent we are on a steady stream of obedient electrons marching through a complex network of generators, turbines, high voltage lines, substations, and, finally, electrical lines to each of our individual homes.
As we all know, South Africa’s power grid is under extreme pressure. There has been a decade or more of poor or no major maintenance, a slipshod, poorly managed process of building new power plants, corruption and outright theft in the procurement chains, and an absolute failure to plan properly for the future. All of this has left the country positively reeling under the vagaries of a sometimes chaotic, constantly changing schedule of suburb-wide blackouts.
In our home, this past weekend, a nicely seasoned and garnished roast went into the oven at 10:30 in the morning. We were watching the morning news programmes; reading electronic versions of US newspapers, and scanning a paper version of the newest issue of. The cats had been fed, our breakfast had been eaten, yet more coffee had been drunk, and we were casually dressed and ready for the rest of our Sunday.
As we do every so often on our block, we had previously agreed to have a street party that Sunday for which everyone on our block brought an extra lawn chair, some edibles, a beverage or two and a glass. We brought out some trestle tables for the food and drink. There are 20 or so households, in toto, so this can become a nice sized gathering. And so we all did come out and join in, partially driven out of our homes by the lack of electricity.
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