Electricity cuts brings back memories of India of the 60s.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: At a blazing 47.8 degrees centigrade, Delhi was the hottest in 62 years. Other parts of the country seared and blistered in the furnace-like Indian summer, recording an average of 45 to 48.4 degrees.
Even the cooler and many times chillier hill stations had their backs on fire with Shimla, Manali, Bhuntar, and Una all recording unprecedented levels of summer heat with temperatures rising several notches above normal.
Down south, power cuts continue to plague Andhra, Telengana and Tamil Nadu. Locals now complain about unannounced power cuts, under the pretext of maintenance, which last for up to four hours. North East India’s power woes have been legendary with people dealing with no electricity even before the summer months.
Deep south, however, the monsoon waters have began to splash Kerala and by the time the rain laden clouds come visiting north it would nearly be a month. But, Kerala too is facing a daily shortage of over 600 MW at present, despite a sharp fall in demand to 55 million units since the onset of monsoon.
As if this heat was not enough, the country is in the grip of another crisis. Electricity supply has been badly hit, a vicious cycle, as the temperatures rise, the demand for power rises too and then the grid just does not have enough juice to hand-over more. The result –power cuts, grid failures and load shedding at ‘’peak hours’’. Many areas do without electricity sometimes for 10-15 hours at a stretch. The situation had rekindled the memories of another day when on a humid July 30, 2012 20 of India’s 28 states were hit by power cuts, along with the capital, New Delhi, when three of the country’s five electricity grids failed.
At present the populace is swearing. Badly hit is the national capital. Large swathes of this sprawling metropolis went without electricity with many of its denizens seen sitting outside and fanning themselves a common sight back in the 60s and 70s sans the high temperature, however.
These days many of them spend time loitering around the huge malls that mark the capital. But the Lt. Governor (Delhi is under Lt Governor rule these days after AAP had opted out) came out with a diktat to regulate power supply to the malls. The Delhi government offices turned off their air conditioners for an hour from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm following the orders of the Lt. Governor. At Delhi secretariat, the cooling effect of air conditioner was enhanced to maximum before it was turned off, so that the officials can survive the heat for the next one hour.
But Jung’s orders have come under fire. In Delhi during peak night hours, darkness can bring back escalation of violence, especially against women. According to figures shared by Delhi Police, between January-April this year, six women were raped and 14 molested every day in the national capital. Last year, the Delhi Police’s mapping found 1,580 dark spots in the city.
Under such unsafe times, instead of going for a scheduled blackout, the government must look forward to using renewable sources of energy like the solar and to improve street lighting in Delhi. But then an entrenched lobby is at work that is dissuading the use of such alternative energy sources lest it may speed up the slow demise of energy production from conventional sources like those from fossil fuels.
Jung’s orders have led to a number of protests in many areas in Delhi. The worst affected has been east Delhi, triggering of protests and road blocks by angry residents. Many say that the issue has also helped political parties score points against each other. Experts say that the real villain is the Delhi Government-owned transmission utility and not the private discoms which is to be blamed for the outages.
In reality the city can supply 6,000 Mw but the distribution has become the weak link battered by poor maintenance of transmission lines and other infrastructure which is directly controlled by the Delhi Transco Limited (DTL). So, it is not the shortage of power we are talking about in Delhi but a situation created because of the chinks in the preparedness of the transmission utility that were exposed in the massive storm that hit the city on May 30 causing significant damage to the transmission lines, which are yet to be fixed.
But speaking for the country, it is high time that the outdated infrastructure has to be thrown out of the window and let winds of change waft through in the form of alternate forms of energy.
The new government has sent all the right signals to correct this anomaly, but how soon time would only tell, but till then happy fanning, with your hands, of course.