In May, there were 7.45 hours of power cut across the country on an average. The figure is 61% lower than a year ago. (Reuters)

The increase in power generation capacity, coupled with improvement in transmission infrastructure, is helping the country reduce its average duration of power cuts. In May, there were 7.45 hours of power cut across the country on an average. The figure is 61% lower than a year ago. Average power cut duration in UP came down to 7.11 hours in May, from 166.31 hours a year ago. The situation in Bihar improved to 12.05 hours from 54.51 in May 2016.

Haryana and Manipur also improved significantly by 73% and 59% to 34.24 hours and 41 hours, respectively. However, the average number of power cuts on an all-India basis inched up to 10.98 power in May from 10.44 a year ago. FY17 witnessed the lowest ever deficit both in terms of meeting energy requirement (-0.7%) and peak demand (-1.6%).