May 23, 2024, New Delhi: As the temperatures cross 45 degree Celsius in many parts of India, reports of power cuts have risen on social media platforms including LocalCircles. Frequency of outages have increased in several states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra. Highest number of complaints in the last one week have come from Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad and some neighbourhoods of Delhi. Delhi on Wednesday reached its peak power demand in the history of the capital at 8000MW as an increasing number of homes and commercial buildings use air conditioners to maintain temperatures.

In response to the woes of the public, LocalCircles attempted to find out through a national survey on how frequent and long are these power cuts and what do they believe are the key reasons for these cuts. The survey received over 28,000 responses from 15,000+ household consumers located in 364 districts of India. 66% respondents were men while 34% respondents were women. 40% respondents were from tier 1, 27% from tier 2 and 33% respondents were from tier 3 & 4 districts.

38% households surveyed are experiencing power outages; 18% experiencing them for 2-12 hours

Duration of power outages are not uniform across the country, states or even cities. The survey asked citizens, “On average how many hours of power/ electricity outage (from power department/ company) are you experiencing each day at your home?” Out of 14,168 who responded to the question 58% indicated that they are “not facing any outage”. Of the remaining respondents 20% indicated “up to 2 hours”; 14% indicated “2-4 hours”; 2% of respondents indicated "4-8 hours"; 2% indicated "8-12 hours" while 2% did not give a clear response and 2% of respondents stated “I don’t know because we have 24X7 power backup. To sum up, 38% of households surveyed are experiencing power outages; 18% are experiencing them for 2-12 hours while 20% of them are experiencing them up to 2 hours. A similar exercise conducted by LocalCircles in February this year found that 20% of the households were generally experiencing power outages on a daily basis. With rising temperatures and discoms in many parts of the country not preparing for summer demand, the numbers have risen to 38%.

Poorly governed and managed power depts, supply infrastructure & maintenance along with power thefts are top reasons according to people for outages in their area

Every time there are major outages different reasons are cited. Regular outages are either ignored or blamed on the weather, maintenance work or indiscipline of the state utilities. The survey next asked, “What all do you believe are the reasons for the power outages in your area/ district?” The question received 14,259 responses with some indicating more than one reason for the power outages. The biggest reason indicated by 52% of respondents is “poor supply infrastructure and its maintenance”; 50% blamed “poorly governed and managed power department/ utility company”; 45% indicated “power thefts”; 34% indicated “corruption”; 14% stated “not enough supply capacity”; 11% attributed it to “hot weather”; and 2% to “other reasons” not mentioned. In addition, 11% did not give a clear response. In essence, poorly governed and managed power departments, supply infrastructure and maintenance along with power thefts are top reasons, according to people for outages in their area. It must be noted here that majority of those facing outages believe that it is mismanagement and lack of preparedness by discoms that is the root cause and not the hot weather.

In summary, the survey shows that despite involvement of private sector and government incentives to push reforms in the power sector, 38% of households surveyed are experiencing power outages, with 18% of those surveyed experiencing them for 2-12 hours. Of those who are experiencing power outages, 52% believe that the biggest reason for continuing and short and long spells of power cuts is “poor supply infrastructure and its maintenance”; 50% have blamed “poorly governed and managed power department/ utility company” for the shortcoming while 45% indicated “power thefts” and 34% indicated “corruption” among the other reasons. Despite decades of efforts and huge investments, power utilities continue to bleed, resulting in poor maintenance and infrastructure. The Central and State governments need to focus more on these continuing shortcomings which make additional investments in increasing power generation capacity meaningless. As the survey shows, the public is aware of where the problem lies and what needs to be done to manage the system more efficiently.

As Temperatures Rise across India, 38% Households Confirm Experiencing Daily Power Outages: Survey - News18May 23, 2024Poorly governed and managed power departments, supply infrastructure and maintenance along with power thefts are top reasons, according to people, for outages in their areashttps://www.news18.com/india/as-temperatures-rise-across-india-38-households-confirm-experiencing-daily-power-outages-survey-8901950.htmlarticleNews18

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?May 23, 2024Power outages have been recorded across India after the current heatwave pushed electricity demand beyond a peak level forecast for this month.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-23/long-blackouts-hit-india-as-heatwave-stokes-power-consumption?sref=Yg3sQEZ2articleBloomberg