InfoAnda - Generators whirring, India's factories shrug off blackouts |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Israel kills Gaza rocket crewman in second day of clashes | | 11 November 2012
Thalia gives birth to baby boy | 27 June 2011
Sean Penn plays catatonic Goth rocker in Cannes | | 20 May 2011

Argentina unveils 21 billion USD in infrastructure megaplan | 25 November 2008

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Generators whirring, India's factories shrug off blackouts |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Aerospace & Defense Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Campaign Polling Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Anatole Kaletsky Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Jack & Suzy Welch Frederick Kempe Christopher Papagianis Mark Leonard Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Olympics Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (0) Full Focus Editor's choice Our best photos from the last 24 hours. See more Images of July Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Standard Chartered questions New York action | 4:54pm EDT Chevron's California refinery fire contained, not out yet 5:06am EDT Obama: America needs "soul searching" on gun violence | 06 Aug 2012 Alleged Colorado gunman's doctor reached police before rampage: ABC 3:05pm EDT Sikh temple gunman was ex-soldier linked to racist group | 4:27pm EDT Discussed 224 Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret U.S. support for Syrian rebels 169 Obama urges ”soul searching” on ways to reduce gun violence 162 Union leader strives to ease Obama’s ”white guy problem” Sponsored Links Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Mission to Mars NASA's Mars rover Curiosity lands on the Red Planet. Slideshow Olympics: Day 11 Highlights from day eleven of the Olympics. Slideshow Generators whirring, India's factories shrug off blackouts Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Solar superstorm could knock out US power grid - experts Fri, Aug 3 2012 Off-grid power shines in India solar village Wed, Aug 1 2012 India power cut hits millions, among world's worst outages Wed, Aug 1 2012 RPT-India's blackouts shine light on broken power sector Wed, Aug 1 2012 India blackout leaves 300 million without power Mon, Jul 30 2012 Analysis & Opinion Overseas cues to drive the market but limited upside In India, what goes up must keep going up Related Topics World » An officer reads documents with the help of a torch at the driving registration and license authority office during a power-cut in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh July 31, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Ajay Verma By Frank Jack Daniel BHIWADI, India | Tue Aug 7, 2012 5:07pm EDT BHIWADI, India (Reuters) - A siren rang out in the cable factory in northern India when there was a power blackout in half the country last week, but its computer screens didn't even blink as $180,000 worth of batteries seamlessly took over the machines winding the thick coils on the shop floor. A few moments later, in a back room of the cavernous plant in the scruffy Bhiwadi industrial park near New Delhi, mechanic Gaurav Bhatia fired up a shipping container-sized diesel generator that ensured continued electricity. It was the second time in 36 hours that power supply to vast swathes of India was halted. In factories, offices, apartment blocks and malls across the north of the country last Monday and Tuesday, similar generators coughed into life, making what were perhaps the largest blackouts in history irritating and costly events, but not catastrophic. Indian cities and their companies are well prepared to keep business moving during power cuts because they always have to cope with unreliable supplies, not just during once-in-a-decade spasms on the grid. Last week's shutdowns were not routine power rationing, the kind that is enforced every day in the summer and forces Kei Industries -- one of India's leading electrical equipment manufacturers -- to generate energy on site for several hours with rudimentary engines. Both times it was a major grid failure. Three of India's five transmission grids collapsed on Tuesday, cutting power to states where some 670 million people live, more than half of the country's population. That blackout, one of the world's worst, followed a similar breakdown across the north the previous day. "We have fuel for about 10 hours on site, but when we heard that (it was a major failure), we called our boss and asked for more supplies," said Bhatia, speaking above the mechanized roar of cable spinners. The World Bank estimates that two-thirds of Indian companies have back-up or independent power supplies. Added to about a third of the 1.2 billion population that never has electricity, this means total grid failure in India is less of a disaster than in the United States or Europe. This off-grid system is effective, but it hits companies' bottom lines and is a major pollutant. It is so wasteful of imported oil that the 10 percent shortfall in grid power at peak hours is a significant contributor to a yawning trade deficit. "We cannot rely on diesel to serve the needs of day-to-day operations of small, medium and large businesses, it will drain this country and we will find ourselves back in 1991," said Amit Sinha of management consultant Bain & Co's utilities practice in India. He was referring to the year when India almost ran out of foreign exchange reserves because of a balance of payments crisis. Diesel demand jumped during last week's power cuts by as much as 25 percent in some states, according to state-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp. The Indian captive power producers association estimates about 15 percent of the country's 205,000 MW generation capacity is from on-site plants of 1 MW or over, including coal, diesel and other sources. Bain estimates another 40,000 MW comes from small back-up generators. 'RATIONING' On a normal day, consumers on the periphery of Delhi can expect between 2 and 6 hours without mains electricity, time when they rely on diesel-fired back-up systems to generate power at twice the cost of mains power. Kei Industries' Chairman Anil Gupta feels lucky. He suffers cuts just four hours a day and only in the summer months when the Rajasthan state electricity board gives priority to irrigating farms. He says the board is courteous enough to warn the industrial estate by e-mail before cutting supplies. "Effectively it is rationing," said Gupta, who estimates his company would grow 5 percent more each year with regular power. The 44-year-old company can take no chances. A few seconds' hiccup to the 24-hour-a-day extrusion process could mean kilometers of copper cable being scrapped and five hours of shutdown. Fluctuations cause bumps on the cable's insulation. So they have nine back-up diesel motors generating 7.5 MW of power on site and have invested in uninterruptible power supply (UPS) technology - banks of high-maintenance batteries connected to computers that ensure power is not lost for even a fraction of a second. They pass the running costs on to customers. "It effects our cost competitiveness," Gupta said. "We slip on deliveries, manpower costs, wasted labor and idle machines." Kei can only generate power for three quarters of operations when the factories go off-grid. Non-core processes are shut, and machine operators switch to doing maintenance or training. That way, core processes are protected, Kei president S. L. Kakkar said. "We are very careful. No customer will give you an order if you don't have the back-up," said Kakkar, whose plain office has a bird's-eye view of Kei's newest plant. "Any customer visiting, the first thing they want to see is the UPS." Mumbai's stock market was unfazed by last week's blackouts because investors know India's companies can cope with long outages. Unsurprisingly, Cummins and Greaves Cotton, two companies that make diesel generators, saw their stock values jump. Kei also seems to have a bright future -- its shares soared 10 percent the day after the Tuesday blackout. Somewhat ironically, Kei sells high-tension transmission cables to the national grid, which has been rapidly modernizing in recent years with the help of billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The company looks like a winner in India's industrial revolution, churning out thick cables to power the factories that are fast replacing farmers driving camels on the road from Delhi to Rajasthan. But, while he is hopeful about improvements in India's power supply, Kakkar says he doesn't see companies weaning themselves off back-ups and batteries in the near future. Maintenance manager Sadhu Ram, just back from nine years working on cables for a different company in Oman, said the situation was characteristic of his home country. "This is big business here. Most companies rely on the backup systems. Otherwise they can't survive," he said pointing to the computers and battery UPS. "In the Gulf our plants had none of this, power cuts were so rare." (Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan) World Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Wednesday, 8 August 2012
As China prepares for Gu's trial, rule of law also in the dock |
Shocking pressure on top Romania court: Council of Europe |
Monsoon rains swamp Philippine capital, markets shut |
Generators whirring, India's factories shrug off blackouts |
Italy's Monti apologizes to Berlusconi over debt comment |
South Sudan to restart oil wells in September, full output in a year |
Analysis: EBay lures big retailers in Amazon battle |
Facebook opens doors to real-money gambling in Britain |
A Chorus Line composer Marvin Hamlisch dies at 68 |
UK's BSkyB to launch 24-hour James Bond TV channel |
Insight: Syria rebels see future fight with foreign radicals |
Top court orders Pakistan PM to appear over graft cases against president |
Egypt launches air strikes after clashes in Sinai |
Philippines rushes aid to 850,000 people affected by floods |
Exclusive: China's president eyes ally for promotion to top body
Hurricane Ernesto lands on Mexican coast |
Belarus recalls entire embassy staff from Sweden: ministry |
Russia's Pussy Riot: Unmasked and on trial |
Nearly 2 million evacuated as Typhoon Haikui hits China |
Exclusive: U.S. sweetens Taliban prisoner proposal in bid to revive peace talks |
Judge in Google, Oracle case seeks names of paid reporters, bloggers |
Madonna urges Russia to free Pussy Riot at Moscow concert |
James Cameron takes 3-D film venture to China |
Disney to bring Marvel show to ABC network |
Film critic Judith Crist dies at 90 |
Son of Bo Xilai sends statement to murder trial: CNN |
Yemen foils Qaeda plot, seizes 40 explosive belts |
Russia's punk rock band say nobody can steal their inner freedom |
Merkel's CDU breaks taboo with call for gay couple tax equality |
Kenya jails seven Somalis to 20 years for piracy |
Violence still problem despite Libya's peaceful power handover |
Russian court cuts sentence of ex-oil tycoon's partner |
Exclusive: Amazon seeks leader for patent acquisitions |
Analysis: EBay lures big retailers in Amazon battle |
Ex-Google executive's new venture helps students avoid corporate life |
Avengers helps power Disney profit in quarter |
A Minute With: Zach Galifianakis, politics and The Campaign |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01