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Comments (121)

  • motionlessveloc
    I wonder how many HNers recall life in Delhi even 20 years ago? Cutting electricity loss is one thing, but getting rid of "load shedding" (unplanned power cuts) is the really revolutionary part. It was not uncommon for the power to go out several times a day and you had to rush to unplug expensive appliances (TV, laptop), because when the power came back it was often accompanied by a surge. My office was wired with two sets of electrical sockets, one connected to grid mains and the other connected to the UPS (for important equipment only).
  • thelastgallon
    India has one thing going for it, sunlight all the time.India can adopt plug-in standards, solar and batteries. I guess most people use some form of battery (UPS/Inverter) anyways, so the idea is familiar.Rooftop is know and it can continue to grow. Next, add vertical solar. This will add ~4 hours of solar production.Required gated communities to be self sufficient or net producers. Cover the surfaces of all high rises with vertical panels. Require these communities to have BESS and EV charging for all car parking. This adds two layers of storage. BESS instead of diesel generators. Add outlet for induction stove. No need of piped gas. I've seen villa communities where most homes are net producers, these ideas are happening, need to be standardized as regulation. Easiest thing is to create standards for the gated communities, which can be enforced.Don't build rural transmission infrastructure. They can be offgrid, using solar and batteries. It is not worth the cost to build and maintain transmission and distribution infrastructure to millions of small villages.Work towards regulating uber/rapido to require EV cars. These drive the most miles in cities and would do wonders.Lots of scope for growth.
  • nibnalin
    I was curious if the price per unit of electricity has also changed over this time period, looks like that's been pretty much flat: https://ibb.co/8DLPn25D(I assume consumption per customer has probably gone up)
  • thumbsup-_-
    I grew up in Delhi during the 90s. We used to have daily power cuts but starting around year 2000 (can't pin exact year), we started having less outages. Since around 2006, we had almost no outages throughout the year. Now, I haven't experienced a power outage in a long time in Delhi
  • zeristor
    Estonia?!Much has been made of Estonia having a high tech virtual government I’d. So many high tech start ups have come from Estonia, I’m a bit stunned that they have big electricity distribution problems.
  • whatever1
    In Greece there is no incentive to fix power losses since the electric bill has a power losses line item.You can steal as much as you want. The ones who pay will pay.
  • bob1029
    I want to know what Singapore's grid operators have been up to. That seems to be the more interesting story based on the data in this article.
  • boringg
    So basically theft and fixing overloaded infra. So this is policy based solutions for the most part.Amazing that places have 50% power loss.
  • anon
    undefined
  • ivewonyoung
    > In areas where theft was particularly rampant and losses were as high as 83 percent, according to Tata, the companies took a different strategy. These pockets of Delhi were predominantly occupied by low-income families. Tata Power, and later BSES, worked to improve the water supply for these residents and provide educational opportunities, such as instruction in reading and writing in Hindi as well as financial literacy. These efforts focused on the women, who were at home more, and paid them to collect electricity payments from their neighbors. Bill payment rates from these areas are now on par with those of other parts of DelhiThis is... interesting on multiple levels.
  • mc32
    That’s quite the achievement. Though a side note of comparison I can’t believe France and Belgium suffer power losses in the 5 to 6% range. Unless I’m misunderstanding what that means, it seems excessive for a modern economy.
  • noisy_boy
    tldr; they passed the administration of power from the corrupt government officials to Tata power (part of the Tata conglomerate) and BSES (part of another conglomerate Reliance). They modernized the setup and closed loopholes and avenues of corruption and also made stealing of power by the corrupt sections of public difficult.
  • Lagoon3384_SWE
    India superpower by 2030!
  • leosanchez
    Vajpayee FTW?
  • perennialreport
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  • CurbStomper3
    [dead]
  • betio
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  • betio
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