US turns to India for blackout advice

Economic Times of India ^ | August 30, 2003

[sarcasm]

NEW DELHI: What does the world's one and only super power do when it faces power blackouts? It comes to the expert, of course! And what if that expert happens to be a Third World country?

Well, exactly such a situation arose when the US approached India on Friday seeking advice on how to tackle power blackouts, reports the Financial Times.

But this is nothing to be shocked about. After the total blackout in north-east America earlier this month, the US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson had rightly remarked: "We're the world's greatest superpower but we have a third world electricity grid."

India, for the uninitiated, is world's No. 1 when it comes to tackling grid failures. It comes from all that experience, you see! After all, with five blackouts in the last seven years, India, is a top hand at tackling such crises.

"I have learned a lot from my Indian counterparts," said William Massey, commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, on a visit scheduled before the US blackout, quotes the Financial Times.

R P Singh, chairman of India's Power Grid Corporation, had said: "We have had lots of visits from other countries, including Japan and China," said Singh.

With a hot summer and a worsening power situation in the western hemisphere, it wouldn't be surprising if more First World powers queue up before India in the near future.

[Don Corleone]

Consulting India about electric power is like consulting the Pope about birth control.

[thinking]

IMHO, no more grids....we need local generating plants, be it nuclear or fuel cells.

The concept of transporting electrical power over thousands of miles of wire is outmoded/unacceptable.

[SteamShovel]

Clean air regulations discourage many utilities to delay or forego new plant construction

Now don't get me wrong on this, I don't believe in wanton polution. But some of these clean air regulations, the ones where we want the flue gas scrubbed to be rediculously clean, actually might be contributing to more environmental destruction than they prevent. It takes POWER to scrub fluegas. This reduces cycle efficiency, causing you to either build a bigger boiler to provide the extra power necessary for the scrubbing, OR you keep the older plants running. The lowered cycle efficiency will result in MORE burned coal or oil, causing more CO2, CO, NOx, SOx etc. to be produced while making the electricity just to run the scrubbers.

I know, I know, reason does not come into play here. They are against burning ANY fuel, even their fuel of choice -Natural Gas- will become a target after they shut down the coal and oil burners. It's radical environmentalism, not an honest desire to keep the air clean for the children. If that were the real goal, nuclear power would be their choice.