UTR - As for being not informed, you are not entirely correct. They have had signs up there since last October / November informing you that in mid January gates would become active. Extension after extension has led to them now becoming active.
For those that want to know how it works with the credit card; the credit card won't actually let you in, but rather let you out, record your details and then let you in again, within 48 hours.
If you need permanent access or for more than the 48 hours, simply call the Management office and get a card issued. This takes about 10 minutes, costs $10 and arrives within only a couple of days.
Not all that hard.
As for power failures, it's all running on a backup system and shouldn't happen.