Today parts of three Skopje municipalities - Suto Orizari, Karpos and Centar - will be without electricity due to planned maintenance by EVN Macedonia. Residents of the affected streets should prepare: phones charged, water stockpiled, and if you work from home - it's a cafe-work day.

The outage schedule:

Suto Orizari and Karpos (09:00 - 14:00): The cut will hit residents of "Aleksandar Urdarevski" street near the Suto Orizari bypass junction, and "Kozle" street (numbers 114-124) in Karpos.

Centar (09:15 - 15:15): "Samoilova" and "Joakim Krcovski" streets will be cut off, along with the Museum of Contemporary Art.

EVN Macedonia calls it a "planned electricity supply interruption for maintenance." Diplomatic translation: we know it'll be inconvenient for residents, but there's no other way.

The question Macedonian citizens have been asking for decades: why are planned maintenance windows always in working hours? Why not at night, when people are asleep and fridges aren't being opened? The answer is probably simple - night shifts cost the utility more. And that is the priority - not the comfort of the residents who pay the bills.

For anyone in Centar who planned a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art today - postpone it. Nothing will work until 15:15. And if you're a student or researcher using the area's library, it's probably wise to move that team meeting to Tuesday. Skopje's planned outages always run longer than the planned window.