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I am from India and just yesterday I saw episode of John Oliver related to state of Utilities in the US [1]. After that episode I was like thank God we don't ha

I am from India and just yesterday I saw episode of John Oliver related to state of Utilities in the US [1]. After that episode I was like thank God we don't have issues like this. The energy infrastructure in India is mostly owned by Government companies and yeah their are some issues but the grid works and it is maintained surprisingly well. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-YRSqaPtMg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-YRSqaPtMg Edit: I am getting down voted lol. Maybe our infrastructure is not producing as much Energy as US but I am mostly talking about Grid. I guess I should have cleared that.

NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
I think perhaps then you got the wrong idea then because generally the service provided by utilities in the U.S. is far-and-away superior to that provided in India.
- anthropodie 4y ago
  Not sure if you lived in India briefly or where you lived to have bad experience with the power companies. But I can attest that service in one of the most remote regions of India is very good. There are no power cuts and if there are because of some storm or other natural disaster they are resolved within 2-3 days.
  - NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
    I lived in Bengaluru for several years. In the U.S. we expect to be able to drink the water that comes from the tap, cutting off entire parts of a city for a day or more from the water supply is largely unheard of; same for electricity. We expect actual storm drains and sewage works as opposed to streets just flooding every time there's rain. etc. I'm not trying to be "down" on India but - having lived with both systems - the U.S. experience is objectively better from every point of view other than price.
    - anthropodie 4y ago
      When was this? I never lived in Bengaluru but I have lived all over Maharashtra and power cuts use to be norm almost over a decade ago but it has changed over last decade.
      - NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
        Within the past decade.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      > In the U.S. we expect to be able to drink the water that comes from the tap, cutting off entire parts of a city for a day or more from the water supply is largely unheard of The population of Flint might disagree, although technically that water kept running while poisoning its population.
      - NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
        No; the people in Flint would entirely agree that they expected to be able to drink their water - that's why it was such an outrage that they couldn't. On the other hand, the fact Puri, in Odisha, got safe drinking water from the tap was a major news story last year - since it was the first city in India to have that, and even just general availability of piped water at all is uncertain for many in India - many, many people get water delivered by road on tankers.
  - bluGill 4y ago
    Service to the remote regions of the US is very good, even in places with far less population density than India. There are sometimes power outages, but not very often, and they are resolved fast. It has been this way since the 1950s for most people. (the exceptions are rare enough that you cannot compare the rate of them between countries) Now the US has some very remote regions that don't have good power. When it is miles between humans there isn't enough demand to put up wires, but the only people living in those areas like being self sufficient and wouldn't want utility power if they could get it.
notacoward 4y ago
I used to visit Bengaluru pretty frequently. The grid is a mess. Besides the very visible - and visibly dangerous - rats' nests of wires just about everywhere, it wasn't very reliable. My colleagues had outages all the time. We couldn't put a data center there for lack of decent power. And this in the relatively affluent parts of a city often touted as a (if not the) high-tech center of the country. I'd guess you're getting downvoted because many here have first hand experience directly contrary to what you're saying. Your experience is what it is, but it's clearly not as generalizable as you make it out to be.

NovemberWhiskey 4y ago

I think perhaps then you got the wrong idea then because generally the service provided by utilities in the U.S. is far-and-away superior to that provided in India.

anthropodie 4y ago
Not sure if you lived in India briefly or where you lived to have bad experience with the power companies. But I can attest that service in one of the most remote regions of India is very good. There are no power cuts and if there are because of some storm or other natural disaster they are resolved within 2-3 days.
- NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
  I lived in Bengaluru for several years. In the U.S. we expect to be able to drink the water that comes from the tap, cutting off entire parts of a city for a day or more from the water supply is largely unheard of; same for electricity. We expect actual storm drains and sewage works as opposed to streets just flooding every time there's rain. etc. I'm not trying to be "down" on India but - having lived with both systems - the U.S. experience is objectively better from every point of view other than price.
  - anthropodie 4y ago
    When was this? I never lived in Bengaluru but I have lived all over Maharashtra and power cuts use to be norm almost over a decade ago but it has changed over last decade.
    - NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
      Within the past decade.
  - lostlogin 4y ago
    > In the U.S. we expect to be able to drink the water that comes from the tap, cutting off entire parts of a city for a day or more from the water supply is largely unheard of The population of Flint might disagree, although technically that water kept running while poisoning its population.
    - NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
      No; the people in Flint would entirely agree that they expected to be able to drink their water - that's why it was such an outrage that they couldn't. On the other hand, the fact Puri, in Odisha, got safe drinking water from the tap was a major news story last year - since it was the first city in India to have that, and even just general availability of piped water at all is uncertain for many in India - many, many people get water delivered by road on tankers.
- bluGill 4y ago
  Service to the remote regions of the US is very good, even in places with far less population density than India. There are sometimes power outages, but not very often, and they are resolved fast. It has been this way since the 1950s for most people. (the exceptions are rare enough that you cannot compare the rate of them between countries) Now the US has some very remote regions that don't have good power. When it is miles between humans there isn't enough demand to put up wires, but the only people living in those areas like being self sufficient and wouldn't want utility power if they could get it.

notacoward 4y ago

I used to visit Bengaluru pretty frequently. The grid is a mess. Besides the very visible - and visibly dangerous - rats' nests of wires just about everywhere, it wasn't very reliable. My colleagues had outages all the time. We couldn't put a data center there for lack of decent power. And this in the relatively affluent parts of a city often touted as a (if not the) high-tech center of the country. I'd guess you're getting downvoted because many here have first hand experience directly contrary to what you're saying. Your experience is what it is, but it's clearly not as generalizable as you make it out to be.