To prevent the recurrence of such a blackout, the causes behind it need to be probed, believe experts at the Institution of Engineering and Technolgy.
Dr Simon Harrison, chair of the UK Energy Policy Panel, Institution of Engineering and Technology, said, "It is important not to jump to conclusions. We should hail the heroic efforts of those who restored the system rapidly. But we do know that despite the high level of investment in this sector, supply is struggling to keep pace with demand as the economy is growing. Central and state governments and the industry need to redouble their efforts to remove the barriers to investment and improve efficiency at all levels to allow India to develop the resilient power system it needs and deserves"
Prakash Nayak, chairman of the Power Panel at the Institution of Engineering and Technology said, "The recent power outage in India has been one of the largest blackouts that the country has experienced since 2001. There has been a huge improvement in the way the situation has been handled this time around. Credit must be given to our engineers who worked swiftly to restore electricity to the 21 states within hours of massive transmission failure. Going forward, there is a need to eradicate such incidents from occurring and it is imperative to demonstrate a sense of urgency in putting together a reliable grid infrastructure to avoid such incidents in the future.
"One of the causes of this situation is various states overdrawing electricity from the regional grids, which brings to light the fact that India has been facing a power deficit due to the surging demand and supply disparity. The government should not only investigate this incident but also build a committee with participation from manufacturers and research institutes and utilities to address the core issues hindering this sector. An advisory panel to constantly look into the generation, transmission and distribution issues in this sector is the need of the hour with a focus on reliability and efficiency.
"The blame game doing its rounds in the political circles is also a cause of concern. The focus should be on solving the crisis and identifying the possible causes of the incident.
India's economy grew by 5.3 per cent in the first quarter, its slowest quarterly growth in nine years. If we are looking at a higher growth rate, we must first get our basic infrastructure in place as incidents such this blackout tends to discourage investments from foreign companies, questioning India's ability to provide uninterrupted services."
