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370 Million Indians Swelter In Heat After Power Fails
Associated Press ^ | July 30, 2012 | Ravi Nessman

Posted on 07/30/2012 8:37:10 PM PDT by JerseyanExile

Northern India's power grid crashed Monday, halting trains, forcing hospitals and airports onto backup power and providing a dark reminder of the nation's inability to feed a growing hunger for energy as it strives to become an economic power.

While the midsummer outage was unique in its reach - it hit 370 million people, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined - its impact was softened by Indians' familiarity with almost daily blackouts of varying duration. Hospitals and major businesses have backup generators that seamlessly kick in during power cuts, and upscale homes are hooked to backup systems powered by truck batteries.

Nonetheless, some small businesses were forced to shut for the day. Buildings were without water because the pumps weren't working, and the vaunted New Delhi Metro, with 1.8 million daily riders, was paralyzed during the busy morning commute.

"This will obviously get worse," said Subhash Chawla, a 65-year-old retiree who took the Metro once power was restored. "Unless the Metro has a separate power supply, it will be chaos in the future."

The grid feeds the nation's breadbasket in Punjab, the war-wracked region of Kashmir, the burgeoning capital of New Delhi, the Dalai Lama's Himalayan headquarters in Dharmsala, and the world's most populous state, poverty-stricken Uttar Pradesh.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: electricalgrid; india; indianpowergrid; powergrid
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To: MaxMax
“Estimated 40% of India doesn't have electricity, FOX.
They should power up one of those nukes.”

Nuclear succeed = More electricity
Nuclear fail = less electricity users

sounds like a win/win for the Indian electrical companies.

61 posted on 07/31/2012 3:49:37 PM PDT by Polynikes (Hakkaa Palle)
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To: JerseyanExile

Ewww, the smell of sweaty curry makes me puke!


62 posted on 07/31/2012 3:59:43 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Democrats are dangerous and evil. Republicans are useless and useful idiots.)
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To: econjack
The Blue Grid of Death? General Electrical Fault?

Cheers!

63 posted on 07/31/2012 7:31:46 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Fledermaus

Do you wear curry?


64 posted on 08/01/2012 8:59:44 AM PDT by ravager
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To: MrB

Most likely right! It’s is really unfortunate that so many on the left seem to think that people are on the low end of their decisions. Earth (Ghia) first, environment second (Oh how I love saving energy), philosophy third (people suck), people last...


65 posted on 08/02/2012 1:14:33 AM PDT by Deagle
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