Its a shame that there were not one but two massive power outages in India at the end of July, hitting almost half of India’s population. First, when the northern grid tripped, millions of people suffered without electricity, in the early hours of Monday. Delhi Metro came to a halt, so did the road traffic as the traffic lights failed. Luckily most hospitals, and public service organizations have alternative power sources(generators,backups) etc. Delhi Airport was not impacted. 80% Power was back up after about 4-6 hours. Just as this grid was being restored to normal, the North-Eastern Grid tripped. Same story. Millions of people suffered.
Some statistics first from wikipedia .
– This was the largest ever power outage in the world. approx 600 million people (50% of India’s Population) were affected at the peak.
– A day before outage in Northern grid, impacted about 350 million people.
– Before this the largest ever outage was in 2005 in Indonesia across Java and Bali that impacted about 100 Million people.
– Brazil 1999( 95 million)
– Brazil/Paraguay 2009 (80-90 Million)
– US and Canada 2003 (55 million)
– Italy 2003, (55 million)
Such massive power outages are not uncommon. There have been a few instances in US, Europe, Latin America over last two years. Sometimes caused by natural calamities, at other times because of Grid aging, poor maintenance, or overdrawing due to extreme weather.
Back to India
The energy situation in India is dismal. The electricity sector hasn’t kept up with the demands, and it has, in general, failed on building infrastructure in sync with the nations modernisation. Citywide blackouts are of course very common in India, and we generally shrug it off. There is a 40-50 year gap of investment in the sector. The Government Energy policies haven’t worked. Privatization in bits and pieces hasn’t worked. In general there has never been a strategic thinking in ensuring energy security of the nation.
Since 2002 government has been modernising the grid. The degree of modernisation and grid connectivity achieved is a success story actually, but far more needs to be done. Here’s an overview as covered in The Economic Times .
Some statistics first from wikipedia .
– This was the largest ever power outage in the world. approx 600 million people (50% of India’s Population) were affected at the peak.
– A day before outage in Northern grid, impacted about 350 million people.
– Before this the largest ever outage was in 2005 in Indonesia across Java and Bali that impacted about 100 Million people.
– Brazil 1999( 95 million)
– Brazil/Paraguay 2009 (80-90 Million)
– US and Canada 2003 (55 million)
– Italy 2003, (55 million)
Such massive power outages are not uncommon. There have been a few instances in US, Europe, Latin America over last two years. Sometimes caused by natural calamities, at other times because of Grid aging, poor maintenance, or overdrawing due to extreme weather.
Back to India
The energy situation in India is dismal. The electricity sector hasn’t kept up with the demands, and it has, in general, failed on building infrastructure in sync with the nations modernisation. Citywide blackouts are of course very common in India, and we generally shrug it off. There is a 40-50 year gap of investment in the sector. The Government Energy policies haven’t worked. Privatization in bits and pieces hasn’t worked. In general there has never been a strategic thinking in ensuring energy security of the nation.
Since 2002 government has been modernising the grid. The degree of modernisation and grid connectivity achieved is a success story actually, but far more needs to be done. Here’s an overview as covered in The Economic Times .
The Atlantic covers it in a series of pictures reminding us of how far we have to go even to match the modernisation and rise from poverty achieved in China and Eastern Asia.
So what are we supposed to do?
- First and foremost, invest in the power generation capacity. What happened with Enron has damaged the investment in energy sector forever. Government needs to show that it will remove roadblocks in investment in power sector.
- Free electricity promises are evil. they are never achieved, and only damage the investment climate. The 7 billion dollar expense on the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana hasn’t shown the expected results. Get rid of that free electricity statement in Objectives of the plan, and speed of implementation will improve.
- Punish the overdrawing states, implement policies that removes incentives for under reporting the power drawing estimate from states. Speed up the national grid implementation, with improved technology and automated systems to control overdrawing.
- Keep the power pricing in tune with reality. Ensure that lower pricing is offered only to people who really need it.
- Improve the fuel supply: with the dismal coal situation, power generation will never improve.
Thanks to the engineers who worked heroically to restore power. Now wait for the three person task force set up by Power ministry to figure out what exactly happened and how to avoid it in future.
This blog item was published by Ritesh Sinha.