3 out of 5 households face power outages in extreme heatwaves: survey.

With temperatures dropping to around 50 degrees Celsius in many parts of India, power outages continue for two hours or more per day for three out of every five households, according to a survey by LocalCircles, a community-based platform.

The survey found that households cited poorly operated power departments, poor supply infrastructure and maintenance as the main causes of power outages in their area while more than half of households did not receive advance notice of power outages from their power department / company.

The survey received more than 35,000 responses from citizens across 344 districts of India. About 63 percent of respondents are male and 37 percent are female More than 41 per cent of the citizens are from Metro or Tier 1 districts, 32 per cent from Tier 2 districts and 27 per cent from Tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

The question is “How many hours of power outage are you experiencing in your home every day (from the power department / company)?” The question received 11,897 responses, of which 38% said they were experiencing “no disruptions”, 29% said they were experiencing “power outages for 2 hours”, 12% said “2-4 hours”, and 5% said “4”. -8 hours “, 2 percent said” 8-12 hours “, and 13 percent said,” I don’t know because we have 24 * 7 power backup “.

The study found that three out of every five households in India experience power outages due to heatwaves and high temperatures where one out of every five households experiences power outages for two hours or more per day.

Compared to a similar survey in April, 34 percent of households previously said they were “not experiencing any disruption.” It rose slightly to 38 percent in May. Meanwhile, households experiencing disruptions up to 2 hours increased from 28 percent in April to 29 percent in May. On the other hand, the number of households experiencing disturbance for two to four hours dropped from 18 percent to 12 percent and the number of households experiencing disturbance for 8-12 hours also dropped from 10 percent in April to 5 percent. May.

Significantly, the percentage of households with 24 * 7 power backups increased from 6 percent in April to 13 percent in May.

In another question, about the root causes of power outages in public areas or districts – 2 per cent of 11,943 respondents said they did not have adequate supply capacity, whereas 55 per cent said “poorly operated and managed power department / utility companies”; 28 percent say “power theft”; 48 percent said “poor supply infrastructure and its maintenance”; 13 percent said “hot weather”; 35% say ‘corruption’; And 7 percent cited “other reasons.”

Furthermore, the survey found that people expect power departments / companies to share information in advance which does not happen. “Advance information about outages allows people to plan their important tasks and deal with distractions somewhat better,” the study said.

There were 11,673 responses to the survey question, asking people, “When there is a power outage in your area, are you aware of the power outage by the power department / company in advance?” The majority, 53 percent of citizens, say “they never inform.” 29 per cent said they “sometimes receive an SMS / phone call / email”, and 6 per cent said “sometimes the local power department staff is notified”. Only 10 percent say they “always receive an SMS / phone call / email”.

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