Posted on 07/31/2012 11:01:47 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — A massive power outage in northern and eastern India left 600 million people, about half the country’s population, without electricity Tuesday, according to reports.
The outage, which further aggravated a grid failure that had disrupted life in the country’s north for several hours Monday, reportedly stranded travelers and commuters, trapped miners and caused traffic jams.
While authorities struggled to restore power, about 300,000 passengers were stranded in more than 300 trains across eight states, as electricity- grid failures crippled operations across six railway zones in the country, according to a report in The Times of India.
Hundreds of coal miners were trapped in Burdwan, about 180 kilometers (112.5 miles) northwest of Kolkata metropolis in eastern India, the AFP reported.
The outages, among the world’s most widespread power failures, occurred as electricity grids serving the country’s northern, eastern and northeastern regions failed at around 3:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
India’s Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said efforts were in progress to resume electricity supply at the earliest, particularly to essential services, the report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Hundreds of miners trapped. Yet they still found the time to break out in a dance for no apparent reason.
I guess this means there are lots of help desks down also. Hope and pray your computer stays good and no trouble with software :)
My thought exactly! How many companies in the USA are shut down by this? I wonder how many will rethink THAT decision now.
Cannot imagine such a widespread outage happening here - Pray it never happens.
The average Indian company is well protected from power failures because they happen so often. All the IT companies have more than 100% standby diesel generators. Often they operate when the utility brown’s out or goes off frequency.
Often these units run several hours a day. Most shops have standby and the more expensive apartment buildings have standby..some 100% so you don’t even loose A/C. Government and govt owned transportation is less likely to have standby..or if they do..it is poorly maintained. A US company..Cummins..is the largest supplier of diesel engines for large gensets in India. Their stock is way up today on a good earnings report..
The average Indian company is well protected from power failures because they happen so often. All the IT companies have more than 100% standby diesel generators. Often they operate when the utility brown’s out or goes off frequency.
Often these units run several hours a day. Most shops have standby and the more expensive apartment buildings have standby..some 100% so you don’t even loose A/C. Government and govt owned transportation is less likely to have standby..or if they do..it is poorly maintained. A US company..Cummins..is the largest supplier of diesel engines for large gensets in India. Their stock is way up today on a good earnings report..
To understand this background see India Struggles to Deliver Enough Power at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/business/global/india-struggles-to-deliver-enough-electricity-for-growth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Some quotes from this article:
ELLORE, India — India has long struggled to provide enough electricity to light its homes and power its industry around the clock. In recent years, the government and private sector sought to change that by building scores of new power plants.
India has tried to built new power plants, like the one partly completed in the state of Andhra Pradesh. But there is often no fuel to run the plants. Companies like Sowmya Industries are hampered by power shortages.
But that campaign is now running into difficulties because the country cannot get enough fuel — principally coal — to run the plants. Clumsy policies, poor management and environmental concerns have hampered the country’s efforts to dig up fuel fast enough to keep up with its growing need for power.
A complex system of subsidies and price controls has limited investment, particularly in resources like coal and natural gas. It has also created anomalies, like retail electricity prices that are lower than the cost of producing power, which lead to big losses at state-owned utilities. An unsettled debate about how much of its forests India should turn over to mining has also limited coal production.......
As Rush pointed out - this has put about one tenth of mankind without electricity.
And he also pointed out that only recently democrats were holding India up as an example of a nation with a superior infrastructure to our own.
Windmills and solar panels to the rescue!
CHINA comes to mind!
Wow - I forgot about back-ups...Thanks for the info.
ROFL!
IT companies in India have their gasoline or other generators so that they stay online despite the frequent blackouts... your help-desk will stay available.
No one is holding India as a example of superior infrastructure. Indians themselves complain about the lack of infrastructure. Rush is an idiot. But good to know at least he can do some basic match. He's been stuck on the “one tenth of mankind” thing like a broken record.
Did you confuse your left and right again and lurch off to the wrong forum?
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