Interesting Facts on the Largest Power Outages in History

In today’s time, when electricity has become an indispensable part of life, it’s hard to imagine a day without television, internet, fridge, microwave or air conditioning. Although power outages in most parts of the world are for a few hours, there are incidents of largest power outages in history that have left millions of people without electricity for days and even months. As one of reputed electricity distribution structure manufacturer, we share with some of the largest power outages in history:

1. Brazil, 1999: In 1999 Brazil saw the worst blackout. It started on March 11 and left people without electricity for almost 103 days.  In São Paulo, the city's tunnels were closed to prevent robberies. Over 60,000 people were on Rio's subway when lights went out.
2. Auckland, 1998: In one of the worst power outages in history, people in Auckland suffered five weeks of blackouts after the failure of the main underground cables. The five-week blackout began on February 19. It left nearly 6,000 people without electricity. Many people moved to other parts of the city to find alternative accommodation. Many businesses had to allow work from home for their employees or they relocated offices in the suburbs. Generators were brought in from around the country to power essential services and some businesses.
3. New York, 1977: Often called the city that never sleeps, New York has experienced several power large-scale outages . On July 13, 1977, 9 million residents of New York were left without electricity for almost 24 hours. The incident also led to looting, robberies and vandalism. Most TV stations remained off the air the next day except a few which relied on diesel-fueled generators. They resumed their broadcasts only for a short while.
4. India, 2012: Nearly 22 states were hit by power cuts, along with New Delhi, when three of the five electricity grids failed. The blackouts affected almost 670 million people. The blackout led to traffic jams in all major cities. Surgical operations had to be put on hold across the country. In West Bengal, hundreds of miners were left trapped for hours. The first blackout took place on July 30 and another one the very next day. It took over 15 hours to resume the 80% service.
5. Italy, 2003: The country witnessed a serious power outage on September 28, 2003. Around 110 trains were reported to have been brought to a halt across the country, trapping thousands of people. People suffered a blackout from 3 hours to 12 hours, depending on their location.  Only the island of Sardinia escaped the power cut.

Looking at all the above blackouts, it would not be wrong to say that an efficient electricity distribution network is the backbone of the country’s daily functioning. Failure of power transmission structures can bring life to a halt. Therefore, proper structures are necessary for Multi Circuit Power Transmission. We, at Utkarsh India, offer single circuit, double circuit, multi circuit towers suitable for twin, quad and hex conductors.