Power Outage

We had a power outage in our apartment today (yes in US!!) for around 4 hrs. I still don’t know if it was an outage local only to our apartment or for the entire block… Since power outages are quite normal from where I come from (Chennai), I was simply waiting for the power to come back. But after 4 hrs, I thought that I’d call and inform. I was amazed by the kind of service esp this being a Sunday. There was a request created with a request number and they even offered a curtsey walkup call for any day in the week!! I could just not help comparing how power outage reporting happens in my place… Lets imagine I have a power outage in chennai, this is how my conversation would be:

Note: I must call within the first 5-10 mins to have the phone answered (else the intelligent people at the substation would place the receiver down!!)

Me: Sir there is no power in xyznagar.

Substation technician (SST) : which area?

Me: xyznagar, abc street

SST: Lineman is working. Power will come

Me: When is the power expected to be back?

SST: Power will come ma

Me: Ok.. (he hangs up even before I say okie )

Where as here, I get a request number, an expected time when the power is going to be restores and what was the issue that caused a power outage. They also ask if I want to be informed when the power is back and to which number they should call to inform. Within minutes two technicians came from the “Illumination Company” and did something to clear the outage. And as said, we also a got a call to confirm if the power has been restored..

How I wish this system was present in India where power outages are just a part of everyday life