Blackouts: more than half a billion without electricity in India

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19060279

Hundreds of millions without power in India

Hundreds of millions of people have been left without electricity in northern and eastern India after a massive power breakdown.

More than half the country has been left without power after three grids collapsed - one of them for the second day running.

Hundreds of trains have come to a standstill and hospitals are running on backup generators.

In eastern India, around 200 miners have been trapped underground.

They have been moved to an area where they have access to fresh air and are not in immediate danger.

In Delhi, Metro services were halted and staff evacuated trains. Some trains have started running again, although a full service is not expected for many hours.

The breakdowns in the northern, eastern, and north-eastern grids mean around 600m people have been affected.

A failure on the northern grid on Monday caused severe disruption and travel chaos across northern India.
Ageing grid

It was unclear why the grid collapsed but the power minister said some states might have been taking too much power.

After Monday's cut, engineers managed to restore electricity to the northern grid by the evening, but at 13:05 (07:35 GMT) on Tuesday, it collapsed again.

The eastern grid failed around the same time, officials said, followed by the north-eastern grid.

Areas affected include Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan in the north, and West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand in the east.

An official in Orissa said the blackout in the eastern grid had been triggered by a fault and could take several hours to resolve.

Railway officials said more than 350 trains were stranded.

Across West Bengal, power went at 13:00 and all suburban railway trains on the eastern railways ground to a halt from Howrah and Seladah stations, the BBC's Rahul Tandon reports from Calcutta.

However, the city is not badly affected as it is served by a private electricity board, our correspondent adds.

Power cuts are common in Indian cities because of a fundamental shortage of power and an ageing grid - the chaos caused by such cuts has led to protests and unrest on the streets in the past.

But the collapse of an entire grid is rare - the last time the northern grid failed was in 2001.

India's demand for electricity has soared in recent years as its economy has grown but its power infrastructure has been unable to meet the growing needs.

Correspondents say unless there is a huge investment in the power sector, the country will see many more power failures.

[Ed Anger]

Pepco looks on in envy.

[CountDeMoney]

Hilarious.  India produces some of the finest engineers in the world.  But it can't keep the lights on.

Further proof of the 3rd World reality that Indians fare better than India itself.  And people wonder why I scoff at the notion that countries like India are ever going to go anywhere.

[jimmy olsen]

Was just going to post this. Now is time for Pakistan to strike!     

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/31/13046777-hundreds-of-millions-without-power-after-indian-grid-goes-down-for-second-time-in-2-days?lite

[Ed Anger]

 

[Eddie Teach]

Indian engineers aren't gonna turn power back on until somebody wins a gold.

[HVC]

Hilarious.  India produces some of the finest engineers in the world.  But it can't keep the lights on.

all the good ones come to the west. the engineers left there are the ones not good enough to leave

Then again, it was only like 5 years ago when a large chunk of the east cast of NA was powerless for a few days

[CountDeMoney]

Then again, it was only like 5 years ago when a large chunk of the east cast of NA was powerless for a few days

That was 2003.  And we knew what went wrong.  It was Canada's fault anyway.

[HVC]

Then again, it was only like 5 years ago when a large chunk of the east cast of NA was powerless for a few days

That was 2003.  And we knew what went wrong.  It was Canada's fault anyway.

michigan!


I think. it was the states though. and crap, 9 years ago already?

[CountDeMoney]

Then again, it was only like 5 years ago when a large chunk of the east cast of NA was powerless for a few days

That was 2003.  And we knew what went wrong.  It was Canada's fault anyway.

michigan!

Try Ontario.

[garbon]

Doesn't look to have affected my vendors...though I haven't had a programming request recently.

[HVC]

Then again, it was only like 5 years ago when a large chunk of the east cast of NA was powerless for a few days

That was 2003.  And we knew what went wrong.  It was Canada's fault anyway.

michigan!

Try Ontario.

wikipedia says ohio. ohio, michigan, they're kind of the same thing.

[CountDeMoney]

wikipedia says ohio. ohio, michigan, they're kind of the same thing.

Wikipedia.  What do they know.

[Ed Anger]

Then again, it was only like 5 years ago when a large chunk of the east cast of NA was powerless for a few days

That was 2003.  And we knew what went wrong.  It was Canada's fault anyway.

michigan!

Try Ontario.

wikipedia says ohio. ohio, michigan, they're kind of the same thing.

That will get you ass kicked in November here boy.

[garbon]

Then again, it was only like 5 years ago when a large chunk of the east cast of NA was powerless for a few days

That was 2003.  And we knew what went wrong.  It was Canada's fault anyway.

michigan!

Try Ontario.

wikipedia says ohio. ohio, michigan, they're kind of the same thing.

That will get you ass kicked in November here boy.

Why would he want to be there?