Shortage of Power

You will agree in which power cuts or frequent interruption in the power supply have serious ramifications on the whole economy globally. Lack of electric supply leads to tremendous loss in industrial output including loss to the power industry and causes inconvenience to consumers. For instance, the Northern Grid collapses in January, 2001 resulted in losses to the tune of Rupees 250 - 500 crore for the power industry alone.

Do you know that during the peak hours, one-fifth of India remains powerless? The peak load demand in the country is about 15% to 20% more than the available generating capacity.  This is one of the major reasons for frequent and prolonged power cuts during peak hours.

But the demand for electricity is not the similar at all times of the day. So it should be possible to manage the usage of electricity in a way in which the power demand stays steady most of the time. How does your utility manage this demand? You could read more about demand management in Block 1 of the Course BEE-002 entitled Energy Management and IT Applications.

Another purpose for power shortage lies in frequent breakdowns in the power distribution system. This is linked to the larger issue of the poor management of power utilities.