2 in 3 Indian households are facing power outages amid heatwave: Survey

Amid the rampant rise in power demand and the worst electricity shortage in more than six years, 2 out of 3 households in the country have admitted to facing power outages, according to a recent survey. 

The maximum temperature in Delhi has been hovering between 42 to 46 degree celsius over the past week. In Gujarat, too, the rise in temperatures has prompted the government to issue an advisory to hospitals. Several states including Rajasthan, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh are also observing power cuts amid surging power demands.

LocalCircles has conducted a survey to understand how are citizens across the country coping with the power outages amid soaring heatwaves and temperatures. 

The first question in the survey asked citizens, "On average, how many hours of power outage (from the utility company) are you experiencing each day at your home?" 

In response, 34 per cent of citizens said they are "Not facing any outage". However 28 per cent noted that they are facing power outages of "Up to 2 hours", 18 per cent said they are facing outages upto "2-4 hours", 10 per cent said "4-8 hours", 2 per cent said "8-12 hours" and another 2 per cent said "12-24 hours". While 6 per cent said "Don't know because we have 24x7 power backup". 

On an aggregate basis, 2 in 3 households in India confirmed facing power outages amidst heatwave and high temperatures. While 1 in 3 households are facing outages of over 2 hours or more each day. 

The survey also asked citizens "Have not had any power outages in my area so far". In response, 12 per cent said that they have 24x7 power backup at home. While 44 per cent said have an inverter or a similar device at home to cope with power outages. 

Two per cent of the households surveyed said that they don't have any power backup device instead they use battery-operated fans, oil lamps, candles, paper fans, etc. to deal with the outage.   The survey received 21,500 responses from citizens across 322 districts of India. 66 per cent of the respondents were men while 34 per cent were women. 42 per cent of the citizens were from metros or tier 1 districts, 32 per cent from tier 2 districts and 26 per cent from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.