Only in Israel...
The police have asked the public to stay off elevators until 6:00 PM in case there are blackouts due to 'excess power usage' as was the case yesterday. Temperatures today are expected to push into the 90's - it's already 91 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) here in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post reports on what happened yesterday:The IEC was forced to initiate rolling blackouts throughout the country Sunday, as the network of power stations was caught at a low point by an ill-timed heat wave.
"The early summer found the Electric Company almost at the end of a period of renovations of production units, which was supposed to be finished before the end of June," the company said, apologizing for the inconvenience and pledging to make every effort to bring electricity production back up to speed.
Intentional blackouts had to be initiated to protect the power system because several days of high temperatures caused a spike in demand for electricity that surpassed Israel Electric's current production capacity, which itself had been weakened by a series of shortages, the company explained.
The blackouts began at about 11 a.m. Sunday and lasted until after 5 p.m., when the temperatures and energy consumption began dropping.
For them to imply that this weather is unusual for early June is simply false. We get hot weather at this time of year all the time. This should have been anticipated.
What are the people in say, the 40th floor of the Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv supposed to do? Stay in their offices from now to 6:00 PM? Go out to lunch by the stairs and wait the rest of the afternoon to go back up?
Fear not Israelis. We all know what the results of this fiasco are going to be. You guessed it: higher electric prices.
Read the whole thing.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:35 AM
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