Power Cuts

.. are not unusual in this country, but power cuts during the 83rd minute of the England - Trinidad and Tobago match are unusually annoying. The game was starting to get interesting, with 1 goal already by the Poms. I have no information how many people were affected, but most would have been as pissed off as my wife. Afterwards, there was a two hour wait for the breeze to build up. No fans, you see. Cooling fans, I should say - not the ones who sing "Vindaloo." The air wasn't that humid, but it was very hot and still. I couldn't get to sleep for two hours.

Related link: Thanh Nien, Football fans promised, 'no power cuts!'. That promise was made only to Hà Nội (I think), and not to HCMC. On the other hand, the people in the provinces are really getting it hard, so I shouldn't complain so much.

Power supply will be prioritized for crowded cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City where total population is around ten million, he added.

That doesn't say much by itself, but if you connect the dots with Peak time power cuts to be scheduled in Vietnam, you're getting an idea of how much stress the World Cup is placing on Việt Nam's electricity grid.

In related news, Ha Manh Te, deputy director of the Electricity Plant 1 in charge of the northern area, said power consumption skyrocketed by 20 percent per day since early this month over last, reaching 42 million kWh. To cope with the situation, his plant would implement power cut schedules on a large-scale covering 15 Northern provinces and cities to ensure regional electricity, Te said. Under the scheme, the affected provinces and cities would face power cuts 21 times a week.

Vietnam’s electricity shortage could run into 180-200 million kW this year, propelled by the limited transmission capacity and insufficient fuel to run gas-operated power plants.

This is not the most developed country in the world, after all. I shouldn't bit too much. Still, I want to give a little bit advice for the local Electricity Board: if you need to shut down the generators and turbines for an England game, do it when Wayne Rooney isn't playing. Without him, the English were hopeless.