Massive Power Outage in India

(Is this an harbinger of things to come???)

 

India Power Outage: 620 Million People Affected By One Of The World’s Biggest Blackouts (PHOTOS)

AP  |  By Posted: 07/31/2012 4:08 am Updated: 07/31/2012 2:08 pm

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world’s biggest blackout.

Hundreds of trains stalled across the country and traffic lights went out, causing widespread traffic jams in New Delhi. Electric crematoria stopped operating, some with bodies half burnt, power officials said. Emergency workers rushed generators to coal mines to rescue miners trapped underground.

The massive failure – a day after a similar, but smaller power failure – has raised serious concerns about India’s outdated infrastructure and the government’s inability to meet its huge appetite for energy as the country aspires to become a regional economic superpower.

Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde blamed the new crisis on states taking more than their allotted share of electricity.

“Everyone overdraws from the grid. Just this morning I held a meeting with power officials from the states and I gave directions that states that overdraw should be punished. We have given instructions that their power supply could be cut,” he told reporters.

The new power failure affected 620 million people across 20 of India’s 28 states – about double the population of the United States. The blackout was unusual in its reach, stretching from the border with Myanmar in the northeast to the Pakistani border about 3,000 kilometers (1,870 miles) away. Its impact, however, was softened by Indians’ familiarity with frequent blackouts and the widespread use of backup generators for major businesses and key facilities such as hospitals and airports.

Shinde later said power was fully restored in the northeast grid four hours after it went down, and that the north grid had 45 percent power and the east grid 35 percent. R.N. Nayak, chairman of Power Grid Corp., which runs the nation’s power system, said he expected to have full power later in the evening.

Oddly, as the crisis dragged into the evening, Shinde was promoted, becoming India’s home minister, its top internal security official. The promotion had been planned previously as part of a greater Cabinet shuffle before he presided over the world’s two worst power outages.

The outages came just a day after India’s northern power grid collapsed for several hours. Indian officials managed to restore power several hours later, but at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday the northern grid collapsed again, said Shailendre Dubey, an official at the Uttar Pradesh Power Corp. in India’s largest state. About the same time, the eastern grid failed and then the northeastern grid followed, energy officials in those regions said. The grids serve more than half India’s population.

In West Bengal, express trains and local electric trains were stopped at stations across the state of West Bengal on the eastern grid. Crowds of people thronged the stations, waiting for any transport to take them to their destinations.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it would take at least 10 to 12 hours to restore power and asked office workers to go home.

“The situation is very grave. We are doing everything to restore power,” West Bengal Power Minister Manish Gupta said.

New Delhi’s Metro rail system, which serves about 1.8 million people a day, immediately shut down for the second day in a row. Police said they managed to evacuate Delhi’s busy Rajiv Chowk station in under half an hour before closing the shutters.

S.K. Jain, 54, said he was on his way to file his income tax return when the Metro closed and now would almost certainly miss the deadline. Hours later, the government announced it was giving taxpayers an extra month to file because of the chaos.

Tuesday’s blackout eclipsed Monday’s in India, which covered territory including 370 million people. The third largest blackout affected 100 million people in Indonesia in 2005, according to reports by The Associated Press.

India’s demand for electricity has soared along with its economy in recent years, but utilities have been unable to meet the growing needs. India’s Central Electricity Authority reported power deficits of more than 8 percent in recent months.

In addition, vast amounts of power are pirated through unauthorized wiring that taps into the electrical system.

The power deficit was worsened by a weak monsoon that lowered hydroelectric generation and kept temperatures higher, further increasing electricity usage as people seek to cool off.

But any connection to the grid remains a luxury for many. One-third of India’s households do not even have electricity to power a light bulb, according to last year’s census.

___

Associated Press writer Nasr ul Hadi contributed to this report from New Delhi and Prasanta Pal contributed from Kolkata.

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/india-power-outage_n_1722356.html?ref=topbar

Earthquake New Delhi Area — India

Moderate earthquake in Northern India (greater New Delhi area)

Last update: March 5, 2012 at 8:41 am by By 

 

Earthquake overview : At 13:11 (1:11 PM), a moderate earthquake struck the greater New Delhi area.

Most important Earthquake Data:

Magnitude : 4.8 to 5.2
UTC Time : Monday, March 05, 2012 at 07:41:06 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Monday, March 05, 2012 at 01:11:06 PM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 19.1 km
Geo-location(s) :
48 km (30 miles) WNW (296°) from NEW DELHI, Delhi, India
93 km (58 miles) WSW (257°) from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India

Update 08:33 UTC
This is one of the strongest earthquakes in the Delhi region since 2007 and 2011 when a Mb=4.7 earthquake and ML=4.3 earthquakes respectively  struck the region causing minor damage and widespread panic.

Update 08:28 UTC
The strongest known earthquakes in the Delhi region include the M6.0 Khurja-Bulandshahr earthquake on 10 October 1956..
The M6.0 Gurgaon earthquake on 27 August 1960
The Mb=5.6 Moradabad earthquake on 15 August 1966.
Historically, the 15 July 1720  earthquake in the Delhi region caused the greatest damage in the city causing many deaths and widespread damage including knocking down large parts of the Shaharepanah (city wall) in Old Delhi from Kabuli Gate to Lal Darwaza and the battlements of the Fatehpuri Masjid according to ASC.
Delhi can also be subjected to shaking from large Himalayan Quakes.

Update 08:23 UTC
Reported shaking in our own site and in relevant other sites are showing a maximum light shaking near the epicenter and a weak to very weak shaking until several hundred km distance from the epicenter.

Epicenter location and area

Update 08:18 UTC
Closest city to the epicenter is Sampla. The epicenter location calculation has always an error margin, but eventual damage (cracks in walls are possible) has to be searched in the direct vicinity of this location

Update 08:12 UTC
Earthquake-Report.com is calling this earthquake MODERATELY dangerous as minor damage and injuries cannot be excluded.

Update 08:00 UTC
Based on the data we are currently evaluating, the magnitude can be called moderate

– Preliminary reports are talking of a Magnitude of 4.8 to 5.2 at a depth of 10 km. This report has to be confirmed though

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/03/05/moderate-earthquake-in-northern-india-greater-new-delhi-area/

 

New Delhi Earthquake

4.2 magnitude earthquake in the New Delhi – Haryana area, India + videos

Last update: September 7, 2011 at 9:55 pm by By 

Earthquake overview : After a long 30 minutes of receiving I Have Felt It reports from concerned New Delhi people we could finally report that a magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck close to New Delhi.

Update 21:49 UTC : There are still NO reports of damage or injuries so far.  Although we are not really expecting major damage from the shaking (the shaking lasted only about 10 seconds), we would not be surprised to see houses and buildings with cracks, shattered tiles, etc when daylight arrives in this very populated area with a lot of badly constructed brick houses..  So far however, no signs of any minor damage.

Update 21:48 UTC : Delhi is among thirty important cities in India that fall into high risk seismic zone whileSrinagar is among places at very high risk of earthquakes, the government said.

to read more, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/07/strong-5-8-earthquake-in-india/