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Early in 2008, Willem Weber needed power immediately for an extension to the 14th Avenue MTN campus in Johannesburg. Weber is core implementation manager for the mobile operator. He soon discovered he was heading into blackout territory, however.

Additional grid electricity was not going to be available after all. Despite previous assurances from the city’s electricity provider that it was building more capacity in the Fairland area, 14th Avenue was connected to an overloaded substation. The provider reckoned it would take two years to supply the additional power.