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Subscribe to RSSTrains and subways ground to a halt as more than 600 million people in India faced a blackout after half the national power grid shut down. Experts say the outdated grid cannot keep up with the country's energy needs. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Updated at 11:10 a.m. ET: NEW DELHI -- Half of India's 1.2 billion people were without power Tuesday as the grids covering 19 states broke down, the second major blackout in as many days.
Stretching from Assam, near China, to the Himalayas and the northwestern deserts of Rajasthan, the outage was the worst to hit India in more than a decade and embarrassed the government, which has failed to build up enough power capacity to meet soaring demand.
The power loss includes grid failures in northern, eastern and northeastern India.
A power outage in India has left more than 600 million people without electricity in one of the world's biggest-ever blackouts. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
"Even before we could figure out the reason for yesterday's failure, we had more grid failures today," said R. N. Nayak, chairman of the state-run Power Grid Corporation.
By the afternoon rush hour, only about 40 percent of power was back up. Electricity had not been restored to all of the sweltering capital, New Delhi, and streets were clogged with commuters trying to get home.
"It's certainly shameful. Power is a very basic amenity and situations like these should not occur," said Unnayan Amitabh, 19, an intern with HSBC bank in New Delhi, as he was giving up on the underground train system and flagging down an auto-rickshaw to get home.
"They (politicians) talk about big ticket reforms but can't get something as essential as power supply right," Amitabh said.
Temperatures in New Delhi have been about average for this time of year, hovering in the 90s with some rain. But the rains from the June-September monsoon season, which is the primary source of irrigation for most of India's farmlands, have been about 20 percent below average up to this point, according to The Economic Times, India's top financial paper.
Among the states hit hard are agricultural areas such as wheat-belt Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the Ganges plains, which has a larger population than Brazil. With less rain to irrigate crops, more farmers resort to electric pumps to draw water from wells.
Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP
Heavy traffic clogged streets in central New Delhi, India, on Tuesday following power outages and rain.
Dozens die as blaze engulfs overnight train in India
Miners trapped
Two hundred miners were stranded in three deep coal shafts in the state of West Bengal when their electric elevators stopped working. Eastern Coalfields Limited official Niladri Roy said workers at the mines, one of which is 3,000 feet deep, were not in danger and were being taken out.
Train stations in Kolkata were swamped and traffic jammed the streets after government offices closed early in the dilapidated coastal city of 5 million people.
The power failed in some major city hospitals and office buildings had to fire up diesel generators.
By mid-evening, services had been restored on the New Delhi metro system.
"At one level it is not all that dramatic because most people do have backups because our power system is prone to breakdowns. What is dramatic today is that it has happened across the country," Himangshu Watts, the energy editor for The Economic Times told NBC News.
"In big cities like Delhi all the hospitals will have backup generation. ... What I'm concerned about (is) what would happen in ... surgery in a small town," he said.
PhotoBlog: India's new president takes office
Power cuts at major hospitals
Nineteen of India's 28 states with a total population of more than 600 million people suffered outages on Tuesday, India's NDTV said, with the lights out even at major hospitals in Kolkata.
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde blamed the system collapse on some states drawing more than their share of electricity from the overstretched grid. Asia's third-largest economy suffers a peak-hour power deficit of about 10 percent, dragging on economic growth.
"This is the second day that something like this has happened. I've given instructions that whoever overdraws power will be punished," Shinde said.
A staffer at the Indian Ministry of Power told NBC News that Tuesday's outage, which occurred just after 2 p.m. (4:30 a.m. ET), was still being repaired.
Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP
Commuters wait for buses outside a subway station in New Delhi on Tuesday after the second major power outage in two days disrupted services in India's capital.
On Monday, India was forced to buy extra power from the tiny neighboring kingdom of Bhutan to help it recover from that blackout, which hit more than 300 million people.
Creaky infrastructure
Power shortages and a creaky road and rail network have also weighed heavily on the country's efforts to industrialize. Grappling with the slowest economic growth in nine years, India recently scaled back a target to pump $1 trillion into infrastructure over the next five years.
Full coverage of international news on NBCNews.com
Major industries have dedicated power plants or large diesel generators and are shielded from outages -- but the inconsistent supply hits investment and disrupts small businesses.
High consumption of heavily subsidized diesel by farmers and businesses has fueled a gaping fiscal deficit that the government has vowed to tackle to restore confidence in the economy. But the poor monsoon season means a subsidy cut is politically difficult.
NBC staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
The scope of this power outage is stunning, 600 million+ people. That is basically the entire population of North and South America (minus Brazil)! I think the numbers alone demonstrate the stark differences between our power grid and their power grid.
...
Finally this country is doing something about the excessive carbon emissions they release into the world's atmosphere.
...
The same thing could probably happen here.
CUD probably ??? WTH, are yu really that young that yu were NOT here for the last outage, or do yu just have a poor memory???!!! hmmmm, no hope for the likes of yu then.
only if we hire Indian engineers to run our power grid
..and Indian workers to maintain it
denko95
Enlighten us, old wise one. WHEN did a power grid failure cause half the U.S. population to lose its electricity? I'm 50, and I don't remember it.
I just don't care.
Yikes. We've had our share of grid failure too. Power grids everywhere are going to take a toll in years to come. I know the smart grid system is suppose to alleviate massive outages but I'm just not quite sure with population growth, consumer and commercial demand and the push towards electric cars if it'll keep up with such overload. We are obviously not as vulnerable as India. Cannot even imagine if we had that many millions of people and businesses without power. It would be ugly!
I hope to God we never get to a point in this country where electricity becomes a rationed item. Could happen though if there isn't a really well defined long term energy plan in place.
This is a test of the emergency power grid back-up system... ooops, guess they don't have one that works right now. d'Oh!
Sound like someone needs a bit of redundancy in their grid. :-)
So by all means Republicans vote down all programs to create jobs rebuilding American infrastructure. Any modernization of the grid to allow inputs from locally produced power (such as windmills and photovoltaic) is socialism. After all taking some of the power from power utilities would mean the end of capitalism.
wonder how this is working for all those companies that outsourced their company customer service lines ............... get what you pay for (or not)
This means that people who have a job created by Romney have the day off.
To all the companies that outsourced to India: Dealing with strikes? Dealing with power failures? Better benefits for an Indian citizen than an American? You deserve it. Maybe India outsourced their power to China? Modern cities have not existed without a power grid. It will be interesting to see how billions, not millions, react.
They're only doing the jobs Americans don't want to do
Nancy Pelosi
I believe George W. Bush copyrighted that phrase with Pelosi back in 2001
Overpopulation is a problem in India, which in turn causes the using up of the earth's natural resources at a high rate...
VegasGurl, you have a profound grasp of the obvious.
It's the economy and Obama has failed. The experiment of a dope taking, community organizer as president didn't work. Let elect someone with a history of success.
Romney 2012
Another sign that the Mayan calender was right!!
Private industry will solve everything... right republicans? It doesn't make any sense to pay taxes for public infrastructure... right republicans? Screw regulations and government oversight they slow things down... right republicans?
Remember Enron? Private industry has a clear motive to create and take advantage of situations like this. Stop blaming everything on the government and open your eyes that they provide essential services that private industry shouldn't.
We're not anywhere close to being in the same boat as India. In fact our electrical grid is being modernized right now. The private sector is revamping their utilities continuely. Now public sector infrastructure is another matter. Look for continued crumbling as our our elected officials spend their time protecting their phony baloney jobs.
Did Obama close the coal power plants in India too?
China has made a multi billion dollar offer for a piece of a Canadian oil company involved in the pipeline. it takes energy to drive the economy. Meanwhile Obama is closing power plants, stopping the pipeline but, the savior has giving us the answer Solyndra Solar - oopps they're bankrupt just like Obama and his ideas. Of course his newest idea on running the country on algae will work.
Romney in 2012
Ay YI, YI, >>> send Uncle Sammy n' OBEE K' NOBEEEEE to thaa rescue asap! JUS senddd'um a couplaah trillion Meximericano PESOS.
THEY wud shore be fer hepping us wud'n they, dus'n they, did'n they????
NOPE yusay!!! OBEE n' OUR ILLUSTRIOUS POLITITIONs KIN HEP'UM ANNNNNY_WAY THO.
denko,
You're an annoying ass clown.
This is news? Half of India does not even have power to go off. Nor indoor plumbing.
Slow news day I guess.
I know what would help, every capable female in India should get pregnant and have even more kids so the population can outpace sustainability at an even quicker pace.
I wish nobody harm, and hope ty\hat anyone trapped in a bad situation is able to get out.
On the other hand... Zombie debt companies like Encore AKA Midland Funding will be unable to engage in legal extortion AKA Zombie debt. As well as dozens of other India based Zombie debt collection agencies.
Sewers back up due to pump failures. Wait for the giant wall of sewage to start flowing like a river. Then call a customer service hotline and ask......"How are you today?" Would you like to buy an extended warranty and service agreement in case something really bad happens like your office is flooded with sewage"?
they already have a river of sewage in India
...it's called the "Holy Ganges"
To robbopaloobop:
You are clearly a troll. Go back under your rock from wence you came.
The US has grid issues that relate to "green" energy as well. The US gives out tax credits based on wind produced electrcity. The good old wind farmers build their plant and "hook" into the existing grid. But wait springtime in Washington state hits and the hydro plants are running full tilt due to mountain runnoffs. Now there is too much electricity and the grid cannot handle it. The hydro plants have to run to protect the fish and rivers. WInd operators are asked to shut down but they balk saying they need to run to get their credits which is their profit. What about kicking in for grid up grades so they could sell their power to the rest of the US. Well why should we pay say the wind operators. SO you end up paying them to not produce. It's just poor planning on the DOE's part.
Hook some Bollywood dancers to a generator and problem solved. They will generate much more energy than Solyndra.
We could put the prison populations on stationary bikes or rowers hooked up to generators. They get one year off for every 20000 miles they ride. Hmm, seems like we have an energy source just sitting there.
Honestly not sure what the big deal is. I've spent several months in India, and I can tell you that they don't use electricity that much. The majority of their transportation system runs on gasoline (not electricity). Their homes have surprisingly little use for electricity. There are very few stoplights (or stop signs) at intersections -- their traffic laws (and driving habits) have no need for these things.
The only place where electricity is used daily is in the hotels which are patroned by westerners (who DEMAND high use of electricity), and the businesses which have computers and air conditioning.
My point is that India will continue to thrive, even without electricity. They really don't need it!