South Asia faces worst electricity crisis

The extreme heat of the sun further challenges the limits of human tolerance due to widespread power shortages. According to Reuters news agency, India is facing its worst electricity crisis in more than six years. Unusually early hot weather causes electricity consumption to increase. Overload caused large-scale power outages, many localities had to cut off electricity alternately. Lack of electricity greatly affects the daily life and production of hundreds of millions of people.

Mr. Naresh Kumar – Environmental sanitation worker said: “When I got home, there was no electricity, there was only water once every two days, the vegetables in the refrigerator were all damaged due to frequent power outages”.

In neighboring Pakistan, the situation is no better. Saphia Mangi – Jacobabad, Pakistan: “To fight the heat, we only have one solar-powered fan and the whole family has to sit around. The heat doesn’t even decrease when it’s dark. “.

Heat waves in March and April were directly responsible for more than 90 deaths in India and Pakistan. However, accompanied by electricity shortages, the actual number could be much higher, even reaching thousands of people.

The energy industry is clearly showing a lack of vision in development

The world is facing too many unexpected incidents, putting pressure on energy sources. But in the opposite direction, what public opinion is saying is that the energy industry is also showing a clear lack of vision in development, which here is not really anticipating the demand for electricity and other utilities. other types of energy in the context of climate change, extreme weather.

In South Asia, annual hot temperatures are 5-7 degrees Celsius higher than the annual average, causing a sudden increase in energy demand. But as is the case with India, for example, the country is still largely dependent on thermal power plants.

While thermal power plants have barely been able to increase capacity due to insufficient coal storage. It is worth mentioning that since 2016, India has set a target to produce 175 GW of electricity from renewable energy by 2022. Had this goal been achieved, India’s current thirst for electricity would not have occurred. Unfortunately, to date, India has only produced 95 GW of electricity from renewables.

Renewable energy is still considered a luxury

In the short term, we can only mobilize all resources to make up for the shortfall. In India, there are states that have cut power to 8 hours a day, Pakistan, there are even places that have cut power for up to 12 hours. Recently, India warned that it will face another energy crisis in July and August.

As the coal shortage of thermal power plants is still ongoing. If the structure of electricity production was diversified and not too dependent on fossil fuels, everything would be different. Regrettably, renewable energy, despite being praised by all countries, also sets goals, but the fact is that since then, renewable energy has been considered a luxury, solving environmental problems is the main, not meet real needs. What happens makes it clear that the development of renewable energy is a very real need for development.