India feels the heat as thousands riot over power cuts

Tag: Thermal Relay

Thousands of people, many wearing only underwear, rioted across northern India yesterday over power cuts that have left millions without electricity or water, highlighting the yawning gap between the country’s superpower aspirations and realities on the ground.

The violence underlined growing public frustration at the Government’s failure to improve the basic infrastructure, especially electricity and water supplies, despite an unprecedented economic boom.

The Government has pledged to provide “power for all” by 2012, but analysts say that it will struggle to keep up with demand as the middle class sates its appetite for electronic goods and larger homes.

While India’s economy has grown at an average of 8 per cent for the past four years, enriching a consumer class of 50-60 million people, half of the billion-plus population are not even connected to the electricity network. Those who are rely on voltage stabilisers, inverters (large batteries) and diesel-powered generators. The power minister in Uttar Pradesh predicted that the energy crisis would last for at least two more years.

Yesterday riots spread across the country’s most populous state, raising fears of repeated protests throughout India’s long, sweltering summer, as 24-hour blackouts deprived thousands of air-conditioning, fans and even drinking water in temperatures above 40C (104F).

Police fired teargas to disperse crowds who had blocked roads and railway lines, attacked police vehicles, set fire to an electricity transformer and attacked electricity workers. More than 250 people were arrested.

India’s power plants can produce 132,000 megawatt hours of electricity – less than half the output of the national grid in Britain. The Power Ministry says that demand is at least 14 per cent higher than that – and growing faster than output.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the worst-affected states. It generates 2,600 megawatt hours and imports a further 3,700, but still has a shortfall of about 1,800 during peak hours. Local officials said that the state had been unable to cope with a surge in demand, especially from air-conditioners, as temperatures soared this week. As a result, most cities had been getting only 12 hours of electricity a day.