Reforms, competition in distribution and end to coal monopoly only antidotes to power failures
Reforms initiated in 1990s sought to introduce transparency by unbundling SEBs into 3 separate cos entrusted with generation, transmission and distribution.
The power failure in India on July 30-31 was big news in US media. When the radio and TV stations began calling with the question whether this spelt the end to India's claims to global-power status, my first reaction was to remind them that a similar failure of the grid in 2003 had drowned the entire Northeast and Midwest in the US and Ontario in Canada into darkness.
But, alas, the similarity between the failures in North America and India ended there. In the US, ageing equipment and poor management by local distribution companies result in outages that can sometimes last for days. But residential and industrial customers can generally count on regular flow of electricity.