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Power
India’s overstressed power grid is one of the most obvious signs of lagging infrastructure development. The modern electronics industry is holding its breath after a the one and a half day power outage in South Korea, which crippled Samsung’s NAND flash memory production and may reduce global production of NAND memory by a fifth. In India, in contrast, power failures can and should be expected daily, even in the most developed areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Any respectable business or factory in India maintains a diesel generator, and the shopping malls and call centers are built atop huge storage tanks of fuel. The outages aren’t just spikes, but rather hour-long blackouts with multi-hour brownouts thrown in. Beyond keeping industrial machines and computers running, air conditioning is essential to office work in this unmercifully hot country, and even service providers must bear the burden of backup power.
In a good hotel, visitors may not even notice the shift from grid to generator, but this necessity adds to the cost of building and operating a facility in India. Effectively, the government is passing the buck on infrastructure to the investor, and generator costs add up fast. Some Industrial Parks or Research Parks will provide continuous power through shared generators – for small companies this is a huge perk, as a generator will require maintenance and logistics that the park can provide. Of course the park is charging a premium for that, and for large factories this may not be as good a deal. How to operate with a generator and its logistics is a key factor in designing a factory or office in India, and finding on-site consultants is recommended.
Is the situation going to improve? India’s government has committed itself to improving the nation’s power grid, but in the world’s largest democracy, government targets tend towards “Electricity for all by 2012” (a part of many politicians’ election campaigns) rather than “Reliable power by 2012” or “A well-managed grid by 2012.” One thing sure to expand is the nation’s use of electricity per capita, as the middle-class becomes wealthy enough to afford air conditioners and run them around the clock. It is estimated that between increased consumer demand and new industrial projects, over a hundred gigawatts of new power capacity are needed by 2012, of which almost 29 gigawatts are now under construction. Ultimately, the issue is not just total production but improved management, as currently both high-tech factories and residential areas suffer alike. Eventually, India’s government must realize that it will never support truly high-tech production like South Korea’s until power outages are unheard of. For now, invest in a generator.