After terrorists destroyed a transmission tower in Baluchistan, Pakistan, nearly 80% of Pakistan's population - or more than 140 million people - were left without power for hours. (see Bloomberg article)
Just like India, which I mentioned in a post related to a power outage in 2012, Pakistan would hugely benefit from a distributed, resilient grid.
Showing posts with label power grid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power grid. Show all posts
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Massive power blackout in India
On July 30, 2012, India was hit by the worst power blackout in its
history, affecting 19 of India's 36 states and leaving roughly half of
the current population of 1.2 billion without electricity. This is
certainly an over-estimate, as currently up to 40 percent of people only
ever have access to the grid.
According to Reuters, peak-hour demand exceeds current power capacity by about 10 percent, impairing economic growth.
A weak monsoon that has resulted in a fall of hydroelectricity generation worsened the situation as people tried to cool down in scorching heat.
The Indian government has been slow to respond to some of the pressing challenges facing its population.
This power cut could offer the opportunity to make a change and transform India's energy-hungry economy into one that is greener, and more resilient to outages, which are even more likely to happen in the future is nothing is done about it.
Growth in demand exceeds new capacity being added by far.
The fact that there are only five electricity grids makes the system prone to failure.
People need to re-think the way power is generated, by opting for locally generated power using renewable sources like photovoltaics, solar-thermal power and wind. Microgrids connected to batteries would at least partly eliminate the need for expensive, environmentally-unfriendly diesel generators and kerosene, which are causing respiratory problems in the millions of people using them for lighting and cooking.
According to Reuters, peak-hour demand exceeds current power capacity by about 10 percent, impairing economic growth.
A weak monsoon that has resulted in a fall of hydroelectricity generation worsened the situation as people tried to cool down in scorching heat.
The Indian government has been slow to respond to some of the pressing challenges facing its population.
This power cut could offer the opportunity to make a change and transform India's energy-hungry economy into one that is greener, and more resilient to outages, which are even more likely to happen in the future is nothing is done about it.
Growth in demand exceeds new capacity being added by far.
The fact that there are only five electricity grids makes the system prone to failure.
People need to re-think the way power is generated, by opting for locally generated power using renewable sources like photovoltaics, solar-thermal power and wind. Microgrids connected to batteries would at least partly eliminate the need for expensive, environmentally-unfriendly diesel generators and kerosene, which are causing respiratory problems in the millions of people using them for lighting and cooking.
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