Power-Less!!

If any of you guys have a relative or friend working in the Maharashtra State Electricty Board, please don't ever mention anything about them to me. I swear I will hunt them down and ensure a slow and painful untimely death for them. Breaking one bone at a time, blowing out one kneecap at a time.

The incessant power cuts used to be bad enough. Then about 4 months ago, they started this load-shedding exercise, consisting of regulated 3 hour power cuts five times a week. And as if this isn't bad enough, now they want to increase it to 4 hours. It's so ridiculous it's not even funny any more!

Why can't the Maharashtra board be privatised? It's the simplest solution. And the most effective too. Maybe some guys will lose their jobs. I don't care! They don't deserve to have them in the first place, taking into consideration the current scenario. Bombay's power supply is privately managed, and the results are there for all to see. It's virtually unheard of for there to be a power cut.

I don't think the problem lies in our inability to generate enough power, but more in the lackadaisical and callous attitude of those responsible for ensuring its generation. I'm sure the homes of government officials and bureaucrats are not facing any sort of power cuts. It's only the common man bearing the brunt of the problem.

I was informed by someone (probably in jest) that the government was planning to switch off all street lights after 10pm every night, in order to conserve energy. "Yeah," I replied. "Or instead they could just rememebr to switch them off during the day!" This, my friends, is the sad situation that we find ourselves in at present.

Another interesting manner of tackling this problem was put forth by someone in the editorials a few weeks back. He suggested that for every hour that a household is not supplied power a certain amount should be deducted from their electricity bill. This would hasten the Board to ensure a more regular power supply if they wish to avoid a serious drop in revenue. The problem I see though, is that with this mechanism in place, the Board may end up having to pay us instead of the other way around!

Another point that warrants a mention is that quite a few households that I know of have installed 'inverters'. An inverter is a device that is connected in parallel with your main supply, which charges itself when the supply is on and then should the supply be switched off, it acts as the supply in the circuit. These sustained power cuts have forced a large percentage of households to thus purchase these devices, thereby cutting a sharp hole in the average family's pocket.

Besides, an inverter only works on the power it stores from the main supply. Now one of the fundamental laws of nature is that there exists no perfectly ideal machine. The output power, to restate it in a slightly simpler manner, of any machine would thus always be less than its input power. Thus to supply power during the power cut, the inverter would have to consume that much power plus some more during it charging phase. Bottomline - this household is now consuming even more power than it would have done before the load-shedding came into existence. How then, does the MSEB plan to reduce power consumption by load-shedding is the question?