Is it a coincidence that the power has gone out to hundreds of millions in India and Pakistan simultaneously? I must say that I believe coincidences to be signs, so this may well be a sign of things to come. This first report notes the last time a similar collapse happened in 2001, the time of the last solar maximum.
India hit by second grid collapse in two days: 670 million without power in larger outage
July 31, 2012 – NEW DELHI - India suffered its second huge, crippling power failure in two days on Tuesday, depriving as much as half of the vast and populous country of electricity and disrupting transport networks. The first power grid collapse, on Monday, was the country’s worst blackout in a decade. It affected seven states in northern India that are home to more than 350 million people. But Tuesday’s failure was even larger, hitting eastern and northeastern areas as well. Both blackouts cut power in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The power companies that operate the affected electricity grids reported the collapse Tuesday on their websites. With about 1.2 billion people, India has the second-highest population of any country, behind China. At least 300 trains have been held up in the affected regions, said Anil Kumar Saxena, a spokesman for Indian Railways. The two consecutive days of disruption are embarrassing for India, a nation growing in international stature and the third largest Asian economy. The power companies said they were working to restore the power supply. It was not immediately clear whether the blackouts were partial or total in the different regions. The grid failure on Monday struck in the early morning hours. Residents spent the rest of the night drenched in sweat amid humid weather, and many backup power systems had run out by daybreak. Power was partially restored after about six hours, authorities said. That blackout left passengers stranded at train stations, and signal failures caused traffic snarls that choked the Indian capital’s already congested roads during office hours. Indians, however, have been no stranger to power cuts, which become more common during the summer when demand shoots up.
-CNN
Storms cause widespread power failure across Pakistan: protests against outages turn violent
July 31, 2012 – PAKISTAN - Prolonged and widespread power outage in most of Pakistan’s cities during scorching summer heat has triggered violent protests in most areas of the country. Coupled with hot and humid summer weather, the prolonged blackout has forced outraged citizens to take to the streets to protest the tough living conditions. The protests turned violent as some of the angry protesters reportedly attacked offices of the power supply department in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, damaging official and private properties. Offices of Pepco, the Pakistan Electric Power Company, were also attacked in Islamabad, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Okara, Multan, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, and Sheikhupura and many of them were reportedly set ablaze. No loss of life was reported, but the roads were blocked till late night. Reports indicate that in some areas people face 12 to 14 hours of rolling blackouts, while the rural residents suffer up to 18 hours of power outage. On Friday, a powerful storm hit some of the country’s power plants, including one of Chashma Nuclear Power Plants and three other plants in Muzaffargarh, causing them to go fully or partly offline. In the meantime, Information Minister Zamar Kaira deflected the blame for the angry protests, saying they have been caused by “political maneuvering of the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League (N))” rather than the prolonged outages. Pakistan’s lack of around 5,000 megawatts of electrical power has forced the government to implement a rolling blackout policy in a bid to prevent a total blackout. –Press TV
