Prepaid Electricity

So apparently electricity is prepaid account. Your account runs out of money and the power turns off. Without warning. Cash (controller) showed up at the office, we cabbed back to the apartment, went to the facilities office, and gave them some money and the power was back. We now have a little card that can be inserted into a slot in the wall outside our apartment to view the balance so as it gets low we can complain for Active to charge the account back up. Neither of us has ever seen or heard of this style of billing in North America. It's kind of neat, though annoying when you don't know what's happening and the power turns off.