No power again. Parts of Centar and Karpoš are left without electricity today because of planned grid works - an announced intervention that, for residents, means a few hours without a fridge, air conditioning and internet, right in the middle of the summer heat.

In Centar, the power will be off from 9 a.m. to noon on stretches of „Istarska“, „83“, „Bitolska“, „42“, „Svetozar Marković“ and „47“ streets, as well as parts of the „Moša Pijade“ and „Kruševska Republika“ boulevards. In Karpoš, the cut-offs run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on part of „1687“ street in the village of Bardovci, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for residents in the village of Orman in front of the railway.

The distributor says it's routine maintenance „aimed at a safer and higher-quality electricity supply“. The wording is familiar - every outage is explained by saying it'll be better in the end. And it probably will be. But for a household that will spend five hours without power in mid-July, „it'll be better later“ is cold comfort.

Planned outages are unavoidable - the grid gets maintained, cables get replaced, that's normal. The problem is when „planned“ becomes „regular“, and „regular“ means that residents of the same neighbourhoods keep seeing their street names on the cut-off lists. Check whether you're on the list today - and then ask yourself how many times you've already been on it this year.