ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Idiocy from the WP inre the Indian grid collapse..

How long do you think it will take before the illegal connection is reconnected??? I suspect it will not take long.

Ok NORCAL, I omitted to mention that at the same time as the disconnection occurs, a fine of some sort is tabled, to discourage this sort of behaviour, as well as the address being noted.

In most other countries in the world, hooking your house up to a power supply under your own steam will get you put in jail.
Bypassing meters and things like system fuses, helps no-one and brings the quality of supply down for everyone.

I cannot agree that the OP was only talking about India. The thread title is critical of the reporting by the press, and the text refers to political interference.

Now, I may be a fool, but this fool believes that what doesn't work in India also won't work anywhere else. Unfortunately, worldwide a similar situation is the norm: various political / social engineering groups acting to micro-manage power monopolies.

It would be silly to expect different results elsewhere. It's just a matter of time, and directly related to the amount of such interference in the 'laws' of reality.

While there's a place for enforcement, I seem to recall an Indian gent named Gandhi who demonstrated that you can't enforce rules when hundreds of millions of people flout them.

One may try to assert that this is an electrical forum, and not a political one. There's some merit to that approach. Yet we cannot ignore the fact that 'politics' has become a major influence on our trade.

Everything from the electrical code to work practices to even the light bulbs we use are heavily directed by various decrees and ministries. Nowhere is the activism of our self-anointed 'saviours' greater than where the local PoCo is involved.

Again I use the Nevada PoCo, NV Energy, to highlight this point. (Don't think Nevada is any different than the situation where you live). With a rapidly expanding population and a developing industrial base, and with the mining industry booming in these hard times, the PoCo has been fighting for decades to increase generating capacity.

Much of the state was dependent upon one power plant with a single line tying it to the regional 'grid.' Attempts to run an additional feeder - so that the area would not be at the mercy of a single wire - were vigorously opposed. Eventually, a much smaller feeder was run over a far more difficult route, at greater expense. By the time the line was completed, the additional capacity was already exceeded. The line has been over-taxed since day one. (Alturas Line)

The power plant added generators. A tremendous effort brought a new natural gas line to the existing coal-fired plant, and a new generator was added. The existing coal plant was then enlarged. (Tracy-Clark plant.)

The power plant sat astride a parallel set of tracks, with a third line that took a completely different route. Now, that's what I call reliable design. The alternate line was scrapped, and the parallel line torn up. Now this plant - and, indeed, most of the West coast - relies upon a single track. Not a single set of tracks - a single track. Trains can move only one way at a time. Again, environmental activism and governmental regulation was behind these decisions by the railroad.

The plant sits on the opposite side of the state from a major undeveloped coal deposit. Were such a resource used, coal would only need to be transported 500 miles, rather than 1200 miles from Montana. To further ease this transport burden, as well as better serve the mines on the far side of the state (that's where the mining is), the PoCo sought to build a new plant near the coal.

No dice. Bill Clinton's second act was to bar the coal from being mined. Shortly after, Nevada's own senator Harry Reid saw to it that the power plant project was stopped.

Apart from a few 'demonstration' solar farms (of about 5 acres or less), plans to build truly significant arrays have been stopped by regulators requiring repeated 'environmental assessments.'

Attempts to expand, or even upgrade, geothermal generation have been stopped. Only one new well in twenty years - and that was on the site of four existing wells.

Were it not for this Depression, and the economic collapse of northern Nevada, the Nevada grid would have been crashed years ago.

In southern Nevada, the electricity comes from ONE dam ... and our current administration has been most receptive to environmentalist's plans to destroy this dam, in the name of 'restoring' the river to a 'natural' state. (Hoover Dam). Mind you, this dam is also the primary source of power for Los Angeles, America's second largest city.

That's why I say "India is a look at our own future."