4 ms·

noob question: why is the power always going out? Are the generating stations not making enough electricity, or is the grid in a state of poor repair?

JohnTHaller 12y ago
India's overall infrastructure is pretty shoddy and there have been problems with coal shortages for the past few years. A quick Googling will turn up some good articles in The Economist and India Times about it. Even the US has its own power issues what with major blackouts over the years, rolling blackouts in major areas like California, etc. Heck, we lost all power in our whole neighborhood in NYC for a week during the summer several years ago when the feeder lines all burned out (barely maintained by ConEd for 50 years). And we regularly have explosions of underground transformers that occasionally catch cars on fire. One of the many joys of living in NYC. Still, it's NOTHING compared to what my colleagues deal with in India.
- fps 12y ago
  Rolling blackouts in CA had nothing to do with infrastructure - it was a ploy by Enron to raise the price of electricity by artificially reducing supply during periods of high demand. I live in a Boston suburb, and haven't been affected by a power outage lasting more than 30 seconds in the 8 years I've lived here. Those have always been caused by lines being hit by trees during wind storms, and supply is always restored by backup lines within seconds. The US has a remarkably robust, high quality power grid. The biggest problem with it is that during peak demand we need to turn on coal fired power plants to supplement renewables and natural gas.
  - JohnTHaller 12y ago
    Maybe Boston has a decent power grid. It varies quite a bit from city to city. NYC is aging fast. Hence our feeder lines blowing out several years ago taking out a chunk of Queens for over a week (fun fact: ALL of our ice cream shops went out of business as a result). Then there was Sandy that took out all of lower Manhattan when the power station near my old apartment flooded and blew up. We'll likely get hit with more of these as NYC will be more prone to flooding due to climate degradation. Don't forget the great northeast blackout of 2003, either. Living in a 12th floor walkup with completely dark stairwells and minimal/no running water for multiple days wasn't fun.
vertex-four 12y ago
Having lived there: basically both. Entire towns would lose power regularly due to cables being damaged, and many parts of India have rolling blackouts due to not enough power being generated.

JohnTHaller 12y ago

India's overall infrastructure is pretty shoddy and there have been problems with coal shortages for the past few years. A quick Googling will turn up some good articles in The Economist and India Times about it. Even the US has its own power issues what with major blackouts over the years, rolling blackouts in major areas like California, etc. Heck, we lost all power in our whole neighborhood in NYC for a week during the summer several years ago when the feeder lines all burned out (barely maintained by ConEd for 50 years). And we regularly have explosions of underground transformers that occasionally catch cars on fire. One of the many joys of living in NYC. Still, it's NOTHING compared to what my colleagues deal with in India.

fps 12y ago
Rolling blackouts in CA had nothing to do with infrastructure - it was a ploy by Enron to raise the price of electricity by artificially reducing supply during periods of high demand. I live in a Boston suburb, and haven't been affected by a power outage lasting more than 30 seconds in the 8 years I've lived here. Those have always been caused by lines being hit by trees during wind storms, and supply is always restored by backup lines within seconds. The US has a remarkably robust, high quality power grid. The biggest problem with it is that during peak demand we need to turn on coal fired power plants to supplement renewables and natural gas.
- JohnTHaller 12y ago
  Maybe Boston has a decent power grid. It varies quite a bit from city to city. NYC is aging fast. Hence our feeder lines blowing out several years ago taking out a chunk of Queens for over a week (fun fact: ALL of our ice cream shops went out of business as a result). Then there was Sandy that took out all of lower Manhattan when the power station near my old apartment flooded and blew up. We'll likely get hit with more of these as NYC will be more prone to flooding due to climate degradation. Don't forget the great northeast blackout of 2003, either. Living in a 12th floor walkup with completely dark stairwells and minimal/no running water for multiple days wasn't fun.

vertex-four 12y ago

Having lived there: basically both. Entire towns would lose power regularly due to cables being damaged, and many parts of India have rolling blackouts due to not enough power being generated.