Power “less”

40 hrs per week, 2 hrs per day and ½ hrs per day….these are the details of scheduled power cuts in states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively. On other hand, Bangalore is facing an acute shortage of diesel. The spin to the story is that majority of the electricity in Karnataka gets generated by hydro power. The absence of sufficient rainfall is causing shortage in power at source which in turn results in unscheduled / scheduled power cuts which prompts people to use generators, which needs diesel to run. Tada!!!

Experiencing the ½ hr cut daily I used to wonder where we are headed and what could possibly save us? But after getting to know of situation in other states, I feel blessed.

US-Indo nuclear deal talks about electricity reaching every household. What they don’t say is how many houses are we talking of here? There are some 40,000 villages which haven’t been electrified till date and what happens to the current deficit? Why is renewable energy not talked about in a big way? Possibly because of the costs? Then what can be done to ease out the burden on the customer? I know of banks who give loans to buy renewable energy products at lower interest rates, but the attractiveness of the offer is questionable. In the west where people get incentivized to pump back unused power to the grid, solar panels are not even feasible in our country.

Liberated that we may be, but there is long way to go……..