Yesterday night, Singapore has seen the *biggest* blackout in 12 years with 80,000 households affected.
But what made this news so important is that I was affected. Yes, I was download Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition Beta Setup when it happen. And guess what, the download reverted back to 20 MB of 60 MB. The download is quite slow you see, that’s why I am mad; I was just 6 MB to file completion!
The blackout not only affects households but the street lights too. It’s good to see my helpful households shinning their torch lights at the car park to aid visibility. It’s also good to see military-inclined residents trying to fake sending Morse code through their windows using torch lights.
When the blackout occurred, I heard loud sighs from around me, it’s rather amusing actually. So much so that I was no longer pissed with my download being put to a halt. It’s complete darkness, I heard some cars horning. It is then when I am assured that I am not dead yet and there is still life around me.
Helpful residents shines torches on walls of neighboring flats. Some residents are apparently enjoying themselves. They’re shining their torches on the car park from left to right and back from right to left as if they were surveying for terrorists in Bukit Batok.
I got rather bored. I mean, lights off literally at ten? You gotta be kidding. So I took a photograph of the neighboring blocks to let you guys see how dark it is. But you see, since I told you it’s black and you can’t see much. It’ll be silly to present to with an everything-black image. So I captured more light with the camera and enhanced it digitally.
Tuesday night’s blackout was the biggest Singapore has seen in 12 years with 80,000 households plunged into darkness for an hour.A short circuit at SP PowerGrid’s Choa Chu Kang substation was apparently to blame.
The result was an automatic shut down of the entire substation.
That was when the lights went out at the Nanyang Technological University in Jalan Bahar, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Panjang and Bukit Timah.
“The fault at Choa Chu Kang was one of those that developed so fast there was no time for us to react,” said Chang Swee Tong of SP PowerGrid.
But that means little to the thousands of people who rang the SP PowerGrid hotline — 2,700 people tried to get through but because only two operators were on-duty only 100 calls could be answered.
Because blackouts are so rare, the company says it is unlikely extra hotline staff will be hired.
On the plus side, no major businesses were affected.
While the power may be back on, SP PowerGrid may not be in the clear just yet: the Energy Market Authority is now looking into the matter. Under the law, the company could be fined up to S$1 million.
Source: Channel News Asia
Click here for a bigger image. [600*1125]
Yesterday’s blackout is really black.
[Picture taken on June 29, 2004 at 11 p.m., 4 separate pictures were taken, they are then merged into one bigger picture, so if you spot anomalies, please forgive me. It's not caused by anything ghostly, just my shaky hands (not because there's a ghost) and my photo editing skill. After edit resolution of image is 2000*3750px, then reduced to 600*1125px.]
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Tags: singapore
I think that picture looks quite nice. I didn’t think of taking a picture of the neighbourhood, but I was enjoying the night view haha.
by YingRu (Jun 30, 2004 at 9 PM)i can only spot one inconsistency in the photo.
your phototaking skills aren’t half bad for someone who hasn’t had a camera for several years till now.
either that or your editing skills are god-like
by sky (Jun 30, 2004 at 10 PM)YingRu: I took a picture because I’m trying to waste the battery of my camera, since I can only take a few more pictures, about 7 to 10. It produce interesting results though.
by Mr. Dew (Jul 1, 2004 at 12 AM)sky: there are about 2 or 3 more, hahaa. luckily it’s too hard to see. The most obvious anomaly is caused by poor handling of camera till there is no way to edit away that flaw. I given up on that one already. My editing skills hasn’t reach god-like yet, hahaa.
the massive blackout was indeed scary,although lots of people can see the funny side of it,like you did.
i wasn’t affected by the blackout,but i kept thinking the lights would go off anytime soon.
insightful picture you have there,considering the fact that i didn’t know how it was like being in perpetual darkness.:)
by vanessa (Jul 1, 2004 at 5 PM)i dun even know got blackout…lol
by ben (Jul 1, 2004 at 9 PM)vanessa: well, it’s too dark that my camera takes a black patch, there’s nothing to see
what i did is to let the shutter open longer to absorb more light so at least there’s some visible thing. well, for better results you can turn your screen monitor darker 
by Mr. Dew (Jul 1, 2004 at 9 PM)ben: you’re living under a really huge rock with a computer connected to the internet, it’s a big news you know, lol
Though I stayed very near an affected area, there wasn’t any blackout. Lucky~ I only knew about it on the next day too.
by Serene (Jul 2, 2004 at 12 AM)Nice pic! The red lights made it look a bit scary…hahaz
Serene: Sorry about the picture looking scary, well, there aren’t much lights around and the intensity causes it to turn orange. It suppose to be orange, but I tuned the color of the whole picture so that the lights on the carpark looks yellow. Unfortunately, it affects the overal picture and turned some lights red, hahaa
by Mr. Dew (Jul 2, 2004 at 1 AM)