66% Indian households hit by power outage amidst worst heat wave

Two in every three Indian households who were part of a nationwide online survey have complained of power outages, confirming the worst fears of power shortage amidst raging heat wave and high temperature.

The survey, conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles, received 21,500 responses from citizens across 322 districts of India.

To the question on how many hours of power outage on an average are being experienced by the citizens, only 34% of the respondents said they were "not facing any outage". While 28% said they are facing power outages for "up to 2 hours", 18% said "2-4 hours". For 10% it was "4-8 hours", while 2% each said "8-12 hours" and "12-24 hours" respectively. Only 6% of the respondents said they had 24*7 power backup.

Of the 10,505 persons who chose to respond to the question as to how they were coping with the situation, 41% said they "have inverter/similar device at home and use it during outages". While 2% said they use battery operated fans, oil lamps, candles, paper fans, etc. to deal with the outage, 12% said they don't have any power back up device at all.

The respondents who participated in the survey were mostly (66%) men. Metro cities and tier 1 cities accounted for 42% of the respondents while 32% came from tier 2 districts and 26% from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

LocalCircles said the survey was conducted in the backdrop of India facing the worst power outages in more than six years amid soaring heatwave and high temperatures across states and UTs. "The Delhi government, a few days back, said that the growing power crisis amid coal shortage could lead to more power cuts impacting metro services and even hospitals. The high temperature in India's national capital last week has been hovering between 42 and 46 degree celsius. In Gujarat, too, the rise in temperatures has prompted the government to issue an advisory to hospitals to set up special wards for heat stroke and other heat-related diseases. Several states including Rajasthan, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh are also observing the worst power cuts amid surging power demands," the social media platform stated.