Could these massive grid failures happen here?

[BB.]

Just in one region, year over year with corrupt politicians vs non-corrupt election year, from the previous article:

One study in India’s most populous state, Andhra Pradesh, discovered that losses in electricity were 3 percent higher during election years. Politicians were winning votes by allowing power theft. And in years when no known criminal was running for office, the utility’s revenues rose 5 percent.

That is an 8% spread. For many industries, that is the difference between profit and loss.

-Bill

[niel]

Another really scary thing about this particular item is that there is no simple way to tell a theft load from a loss caused by defective equipment or interconnections. That means that infrastructure problems are harder to detect until they become critical.
A secondhand acquaintance of mine installed an electrically powered car lift for home DIY. It had a 240 volt motor and he accidentally connected one phase wire to the metal of the lift. No immediate safety hazard because the whole concrete slab to which it was bolted came up to line voltage, and the lift still worked. But the 30 Amp continuous drain did not trip the 40 amp breaker and his next electric bill was a real surprise.

thank you for saying what i was saying. there are contradicting statements here saying there is up to 30% being stolen and then it's being said they don't know how much is being taken to gear up for power production. past performances of paying customers can give a rough idea, but does not say that one day those same customers won't all use an average of 30% more than usual as nobody can predict the future with any certainty. common sense would dictate that one would need to be able to switch in extra during such a period as they do here. now what good is it to do that if the lines and transformers can't handle it even for the amount of paying customers?

if they can say,
"Theft of electricity is so pervasive in India that 15 to 30 percent of power is lost to illegal hookups, bill fraud, or nonpayment."
then they do know they need that extra power to be sent out. they can't spite their paying customers because they don't want to supplement the extra that is being stolen and if the lines and transformers can't take that extra 15-30% then how can you just blame it on the thieves?

[Cariboocoot]

The stats for today will be inaccurate tomorrow. They can send crews out to take down 50 illegal taps and the next day 100 new ones are in place. If someone dies making one these connections the attitude is "so what?" because there's 2 billion people there; they are a disposable commodity.

We have many, many immigrants from India here in B.C. You would not believe the mindset. That is the problem: from the thieves on up to the politicians they don't actually perceive that any of these actions which cause grid instability are wrong. Until it becomes the popular attitude because the power went out. Then a new batch will be put into positions of authority, some of the old guard will be 'sacrificed', and things will function for awhile until they all fall back into the old ways.

The theft of electricity isn't the only type of theft contributing to the problem. It would not surprise me at all to find they have people working for the power company who steal wiring and sell it to be used for illegal connections. Contractors not doing work for which they are paid or doing it improperly. Bureaucrats ignoring data on misuse and failures. Bribery as a normal course of business.

There's a lot more wrong with India's power grid than bad wiring.

[bill von novak]

they can't spite their paying customers because they don't want to supplement the extra that is being stolen and if the lines and transformers can't take that extra 15-30% then how can you just blame it on the thieves?

They ARE spiting their paying customers; many people in India experience power cuts for most of the day. They don't have the money to replace the infrastructure because they don't make much from their customers - since everyone is stealing power.

[john p]

Even if they had the money to replace the infrastructure it does not mean it would get replaced. much of the money would dissapear in so many ways. some just stolen,some wasted on unusable items(but saleable or usable to some friend,relative.) Some lost to overcharging contractors,so inferior items installed with high failure rate. ETC ETC

[john p]

EXAMPLE .how money goes .
On the island I spend much time in Philippines it took 12 years to build a 27klm concrete one lane each way road. Its now almost complete and paid for . But it was paid for with government funds 3 times.
Some of it has failed already as the contractor wanted more profit so left out much of the reinforcing bars. concrete was also many times made weak by using less cement. Its how it is in such countries.

[niel]

well at least it's now being said that it isn't just theft of power, which is what i said.