Bijli

Power outage is a huge issue in Pakistan.

Planned outages, known as load shedding, is one way power companies manage their customer base.

But they don't post public schedules and often shed load arbitrarily, resulting in great inconvenience for customers.

So I built Bijli, so people could update whether their area has power or not. And overtime, with data, it could make informed predictions about potential power outages in an area.

I also asked the power company in Karachi, if they'd be willing to share their data so customers could have accurate and live data regarding outages. But I met with a great deal of opposition. They were afraid of the effect making their power outage data public would have on share price.

I also tinkered with other ideas to help me get data. One was Raspberry Pi boxes installed in different areas which would update my APIs with real time data. But it wasn't feasable because of cost and maintenance, not to mention people could just rip them off the poles (a real problem in a city like Karachi).

While Bijli isn't abandoned, it is on hold while I try to figure out how to make it more useful for customers. Although my hope is that power outages become a thing of the past before I can find a solution.