India power grid collapse 620 million left without power

[Shuffler]

I wonder if when they call for service... they get an American. 

[Mickthestick]

Cap,
 You have no clue. None,zip,nada,zero.

Stay with cars cause you have no idea what your talking about.

I've been a lineman for 23 years and while there is always room to improve, dealing with storms, outages, equipment failures will always take time to accomplish.

Your assumptions are based on ignorance.

Anytime you think you can do better, run down here. I've gotta set of hooks and all the 40-60 foot poles you could imagine. Climb a few in good weather and lets see what you can accomplish. Then do it in a storm.

It also might be that the power grid in this country is generally in a state of decay. The fact that the vast majority of our power lines are still above ground is just one sign of the age.

[mbailey]

I wonder if when they call for service... they get an American. 

 

[Tracerfi]

I wonder if when they call for service... they get an American. 

  i know someone who has called for customer service and got someone from i think it was Jamaica

[Delirium]

Connecticut Light and Power dropped the ball so bad last October that much of Connecticut State was without power for a week or more. We had a very early snow storm hit while all the trees still had leaves, which made whole trees come down en masse. During the storm, you could hear trees breaking, falling and hitting buildings, cars, etc.

I was without power for 9 days and I saw it all; people fighting over food, gasoline, and generators that I am now convinced I need a gun in case the situation ever arises again. I've never owned one before, but I realize that we are one storm away from complete chaos. I was in a bad situation, I had a generator but I needed to run it 24/7 because my wife's grandmother was living us because she was on oxygen and needed the power for her concentrator (she had no power at her home either). At the end of the 9 day stretch, I killed my generator (it was pushing oil through the exhaust), one that was purchased (coil broke down), and I was on my 3rd unit that was borrowed.

The Gen Manger of CL&P was fired, the company had to give back 30 million to the customers and they were forced by court order to set aside money for tree trimming that they cut from their original budget (which made the storm worse). In addition, all gas stations had to have back up generators and more centers to house people without power would be made available.

I feel the pain the country of India is going through... I don't blame the lineman either. In fact during the storm I mentioned above, people were so irate that a few CL&P workers needed to have police escort as people wanted to lynch them.

[Butcher]

lol few years ago central Florida got hit with 3 hurricanes within a 30 mile radius, no power for over 3 weeks in my area alone, at the time I had well water which I ran on a generator for few hours a day just for a shower, dish washing and clothes.

I missed american IDOL, should of sued the hell out of the electric company, it was simply devastating time to go through.

/Actually it didn't matter, I still went to work and came home - I simply didn't have anything in the fridge to eat or freezer.

[Sundowner]

What may be funny about this article is that half of that number (610 million) may never have had power to begin with.

You have a link for reference?

Btw, for those keeping track this is the worst blackout ever recorded in terms of people affected.

Regards,
Sun

The July 2012 India blackout is a power outage that began on 30 July 2012 at 2:48 AM (IST) (21:18 GMT) in northern India, affecting 14 states,[1] followed by another power outage on 31 July, that began at 1:02 PM (IST) (7:32 GMT), affecting 20 states. This blackout is the world's worst blackout in history, affecting an area with a population of over 600 million people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_northern_India_power_grid_failure

[Sol75]

And now every tech support call goes unanswered... uh oh..

[zack1234]

It also might be that the power grid in this country is generally in a state of decay. The fact that the vast majority of our power lines are still above ground is just one sign of the age.

Is it easier to maintain cables above the ground and are there heat problems being underground?

I think investment is the problem with the power infra structure of the US, capital out lay for a efficient and stable power grid is not viable when customer's require lower prices for power and the investor require dividends.

[CAP1]

i dunno. when i call crapcast, i get an american sounding person, and the last time, she was disgustingly friendly and helpful. same with t-mobile.

[Shuffler]

I'm just glad that most of Texas is on it's own grid and not tied into those up northeast.

[SIM]

Overhead lines are much easier to maintain. And restoration is a lot faster in general when there is an outage.

To repair underground lines you must first locate the fault in the line, then dig up the fault, make repairs. Doesn't sound like much time but it can be hours. Where an overhead line can be fixed much more quickly just because you don't have to locate a problem hidden underground.

What you will not hear in the news is how expensive and time consuming it is to convert an overhead system to underground. Someone is going to argue with me, but they aren't thinking thru all the problems to be encountered.

 In ANY city where there are other utilities with underground line, underground power lines are automatically at risk. Every time a gas company runs a new line or the water company adds a service, a cable company even looks in the area, the power lines will get nicked, cut, dug up.......Lots of times the other utilities crews will NOT turn in the fact that they hit electrical lines. The lines don't necessarily go bad at that instance. So when the lines DO go bad and a cable tv line is found in close proximity, there is no way to prove who cut the line. That translates into lost funds for the power company as they have no way to recoup the spent money.

Why should the power company spend its money to put everything underground? That's just about like asking HTC to pay your cable bill so you can play AH.

By all means, build a new city? Put lines underground right then! That is how most subdivisions are done in this area now. But ya know something? Every time a line goes bad in an yard, for whatever reason, we get slammed for having to dig up one customers yard to repair another's power. One transformer may feed 8-10 different customers so the lines cross multiple lots at times.

There is NO easy answer. Its a nightmare at every turn.

[zack1234]

Its got ot be safer having cables high above ground like we have in the UK, hundreds of miles of cables underground as has been stated is going to at one time or another be interupted by accidental damage or some silly sod.

I know if you have a electricty pylon next to your house your house is worth £3.50p because of the health risk associated with magnetic fields.

We have a problem in the UK people stealng power cables etc, they regularly get burnt to a crisp which is reinforcing Darwins theory of evolution.

In the UK you could put solar panels on you roof and sell it to the excess power companies at a good profit, but the companies said if the amount of people doing it incresaes thier share prices would be affected, the government passed a law to stop this and save the loss of revenue to the power companies.

The use of solar,wind power is a good way to go but the monopoly for the power companies is not going to allow for proper investment.

Imagine all those solar panels in the American deserts,

[CAP1]

above ground is the way to go.......but the companies need to go back to having crews out there. that would lessen the necessity of people like you to have to go up on a pole in crappy weather.

 

[Bodhi]

I'm thinking how dependent of electricity we are; if this scenario would happen here

Look up a book called "One Second After".  It is chilling to realize just how badly it would hit the US if the loss was prolonged.