About
This site is about collecting information on how ordinary South Africans are affected by the ongoing power outages, also known as load shedding. Several options are available to record your own personal experience.First, there is the outage notification service, where you can log or clear outage information in a certain area. This is used to track exactly which areas are affected by the outages during the day. In this instance there are basically 2 type of SMS messages you can send: a "poweroff" message to notify us of an area in which a power outage has started, and a "poweron" SMS which effectively clears the alert of the previous message. On this site, you will also be able to view current areas flagged as in the dark. This could help people plan trips etc.
Then there is a loss measurement collection service. Here you submit an SMS informing us of any financial losses you suffered as a result of load shedding. Financial losses include any of the following (and much more!):
* The extra fuel had to purchase to drive your generator
* The cost of your generator (purchase price)
* The maintenance cost of your generator (spares, service etc)
* If you missed an appointment and had to pay a penalty because of that
* If you could not conclude a sale because of the power outage
Our final type of data collection service is your comments - a place where you can vent your frustrations.
Where to from here? The easiest is to familiarize yourself with the SMS functions. Please have a look at our "How to help" page.
From there, you are welcome to have a look at the current outage map, or perhaps have a look at other people's frustrations.
