Delhi Cut Electricity Loss from 50 to 5 Percent

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• Hacker News
• I grew up in Delhi during the 90s. We used to have daily power cuts but starting around year 2000 (can't pin exact year), we started having less outages. Since around 2006, we had almost no outages throughout the year. Now, I haven't experienced a power outage in a long time in Delhi
  by thumbsup-_-
• So basically theft and fixing overloaded infra. So this is policy based solutions for the most part.

  Amazing that places have 50% power loss.

  by boringg
• I want to know what Singapore's grid operators have been up to. That seems to be the more interesting story based on the data in this article.
  by bob1029
• In Greece there is no incentive to fix power losses since the electric bill has a power losses line item.

  You can steal as much as you want. The ones who pay will pay.

  by whatever1
• Estonia?!

  Much has been made of Estonia having a high tech virtual government I’d. So many high tech start ups have come from Estonia, I’m a bit stunned that they have big electricity distribution problems.

  by zeristor
• India has one thing going for it, sunlight all the time.

  India can adopt plug-in standards, solar and batteries. I guess most people use some form of battery (UPS/Inverter) anyways, so the idea is familiar.

  Rooftop is known and it can continue to grow. Next, add vertical solar. This will add ~4 hours of solar production.

  Required gated communities to be self sufficient or net producers. Cover the surfaces of all high rises with vertical panels. Require these communities to have BESS and EV charging for all car parking. This adds two layers of storage. BESS instead of diesel generators. Add outlet for induction stove. No need of piped gas. I've seen villa communities where most homes are net producers, these ideas are happening, need to be standardized as regulation. Easiest thing is to create standards for the gated communities, which can be enforced.

  Don't build rural transmission infrastructure. They can be offgrid, using solar and batteries. It is not worth the cost to build and maintain transmission and distribution infrastructure to millions of small villages.

  Work towards regulating uber/rapido to require EV cars. These drive the most miles in cities and would do wonders.

  Lots of scope for growth.

  by thelastgallon
• The effort to reduce electricity theft has had an interesting side effect. One of the ways to prevent theft is to insulate the power lines going into neighborhoods. This also makes them safe for monkeys to use as 'roads' with the result that roving gangs of monkeys move from neighborhood to neighborhood with ease and also have access to the upper floor of apartment buildings because of the proximity of the power lines. I saw this in person a few years ago.
  by groos
• I wonder how many HNers recall life in Delhi even 20 years ago? Cutting electricity loss is one thing, but getting rid of "load shedding" (unplanned power cuts) is the really revolutionary part. It was not uncommon for the power to go out several times a day and you had to rush to unplug expensive appliances (TV, laptop), because when the power came back it was often accompanied by a surge. My office was wired with two sets of electrical sockets, one connected to grid mains and the other connected to the UPS (for important equipment only).
  by motionlessveloc