EVN Macedonia has announced that parts of Skopje will be without electricity today (May 26) due to planned technical works on the power grid. A short-term inconvenience for customers, but with an institutional implication worth pointing out.

Butel: a section of customers on Mara Mazhdurechka Street and Ferid Bajrami Street - no power from 8:30 to 11:30.

Centar: the Museum of Contemporary Art and part of the customers on Samoilova Street - no power from 9:00 to 15:00. Six hours without electricity is a significant stretch - which means the Museum will be effectively closed to visitors for part of the day, and if they have exhibitions with lighting or climate-controlled protection (and they all do), the artworks will be exposed to temperature fluctuations.

For customers planning to work from home, running crypto miners, or storing food in the fridge - the warning is clear: prepare yourselves. EVN puts the word out through the media, but rarely does that reach every affected customer directly.

The recurring question: why are plans for technical works announced through the media just a few hours ahead, rather than as an SMS to every affected customer (since EVN has their phone numbers - for billing)? This is a technological capability that is a standard service across other European countries; in Macedonia it is still a distant future. Why?

Customers with insurance concerns (say, damage to an electrical appliance from a sudden cut without prior official notice) should know: if EVN only posts on its website and goes through the media, that is not „individual notification" in the legal sense. Which means that if your fridge breaks down because of a cut you did not know about, the insurance company can treat it as an act of God - or refuse the claim entirely. Talk to your insurer before the damage is done.