Monty Grieving is sitting on his empty terrace with a colleague. The owner of coffee tent Sees opened this morning at 8.30, but was forced to close an hour later after the power fell out. A note hangs on his door: ‘Temporarily closed due to power outage! Apologies, team sees. ‘ Such a note is also in front of other things.
But the terrace of Bakkerij Joost & Brood – diagonally opposite Sees – is almost full. They have not yet been bothered by the power outage there. The Kruidvat Two buildings next to it has only been without electricity for an hour. Dry cleaning De Gijsbrecht – opposite the drugstore – is not bothered by it at all. It seems completely random where the power outage strikes.
Announcement
Last Monday the entrepreneurs received a letter from Liander. It stated that the network operator would do maintenance today on the power network. From 8.30 am to at least 4.30 pm there would be no power, but how long that would take and what things would be affected depends on what was found during maintenance.
The network operator advised the entrepreneurs in the letter to take precautions themselves, such as renting emergency power supply. The costs are for the entrepreneurs themselves.
Random and irritation
The work today causes irritation on the Gijsbrecht. For many of them, the announcement said they were too late to take emergency measures. Grieving was able to work for an hour when the power fell out. From his other case in Amsterdam he brought a separate pin device to be sure.
He was also able to arrange a dieselaggregate for emergency power, but in the end did not do so. “Such a thing makes a lot of noise and stinks. It is not worth it if I end up without electricity for an hour.”
After noon, the power at his coffee tent jumps again. But Grieving is not happy with it. “If I open now and the power will go off again in an hour, it makes little sense to open my doors.”
On the other hand, Trung Le of Dry Cleaning De Gijsbrecht is quite cheerful. For the time being he is not yet bothered by power failure. He came to the case extra early this morning to do some work in the event that the power failure would also strike with him.
In the meantime, several Liander employees are working on electricity. Four vans from the network operator are around the corner of the Gijsbrecht, on the Neuweg.
Multiple cables
The Liander spokesperson said that the arbitrariness of power outages is due to the many cables that run from the transformer houses to the retail properties. The cables provide different buildings through the Gijsbrecht with electricity. When working on one cables, one case can suffer from it, while the neighbor is not experiencing a problem.
The spokesperson also says that she understands that one week in advance is experienced as a short day. Why it was not possible before is unclear, but it does let it be required by law to let this type of work know at least three days in advance.