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Helping to ease the power crisis

The current two-and-a-half hour power cut is quite understandably proving a major irritant in the life of many an electricity consumer, but there doesn't seem to be an alternative to enduring it until a substantial dent is made in this complicated problem which is the power crisis. We at least have the assurance of the State authorities that all attempts are being made to resolve the crisis within a specified time frame.

Given the fact that the power problem was allowed to fester over the years, it is only right that consumers exercise patience and allow the present authorities to try out their strategy of rescuing the country from the current doldrums. Certainly, the Government should be permitted some time to put things right, for, it would be unrealistic to entertain contrary expectations.

However, delivering on important promises is essential for governmental credibility and we hope no further time would be lost in efforts to put things right on the power and energy front. Meanwhile, consumers should consider it obligatory on their part to do whatever possible to help ease the current strains in the power situation. Rather than curse the darkness in deep desperation, the public would do well to think of ways and means of easing the burdens on the national grid.

Many individual power consumers adopt even rigid power-saving methods and expedients because this will have a positive impact on their electricity bills. The more sparingly power is consumed, the less will one have to pay for it. Basic economic considerations prevent most individual electricity consumers from using power wastefully, although here too, facile generalisations cannot be made.

However, the same cannot be said of institutional and corporate power consumers. In the case of these large scale power consumers, particularly public sector bodies, economies are rarely exercised in the use of this valuable resource. There is an unfortunate tendency on the part of a considerable number of public sector employees in particular, to act indifferently towards the pressing need to use power and energy discretely and carefully. These important considerations are usually shrugged off because the question of paying for power consumption out of one's pocket doesn't arise.

If we are to overcome this crisis at our earliest, such attitudes towards power consumption need to be abandoned. Power used wastefully, in our homes or in our workplaces, is a drain on the national grid. The longer power is thus wasted, the more difficult would it be to resolve the power crisis.

We will, therefore, be acting in our own interests by taking it on ourselves to switch off fans and electric bulbs which are allowed to remain lit for no valid reason. The same is true of telephone calls and the use of other power appliances.

A huge duty is also cast on business enterprises and establishments to use power sparingly. How could, for instance, one justify the use of sprawling and colourful neon and other power-guzzling signs and decorations at night? Isn't this an unaffordable excess? The longer consumers prove immune to these considerations the longer will be their woes in the context of the power crisis.

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