印度北方大面積停電 3億人受影響大綱
A protracted blackout disrupted the lives of an estimated 300m people across northern India on Monday, as the aspiring superpower's fragile infrastructure added to the woes of a government already struggling to manage the slowing economy, persistent inflation and the failure of the monsoon rains.
一場漫長的停電週一擾亂了印度北方大約3億人的生活，這個志向高遠的超級大國脆弱的基礎設施，給本已在艱難應對經濟減速、通脹居高不下以及今年雨季降雨偏少的政府增添了新的煩惱。
The blackout, which began at about 2.30am and lasted more than 12 hours in many areas, was the worst power failure in India for more than a decade.
從凌晨2時30分開始的這次停電，在很多地區持續了12個小時以上，成爲十多年來印度最嚴重的停電事故。
Millions of people were left without electric fans or air conditioning in the 30°C heat, train services were disrupted, traffic was paralysed and New Delhi's airport was forced to rely on back-up power systems for several hours. Emergency energy supplies from Bhutan helped the government restore power in many affected areas by early evening, but public discontent still simmered.
在30攝氏度的高溫天氣裏，數百萬人無法使用電扇、空調，鐵路服務也被迫中斷，交通一度癱瘓，新德里(New Delhi)的機場被迫使用備用電力系統數小時。傍晚的時候，不丹王國的緊急能源供應幫助印度政府恢復了很多停電區的供電，但公衆的不滿仍在升溫。
Authorities suggested that the crisis may have been caused by northern states drawing more than their allocated power quota to help stricken farmers pump groundwater from deep borewells in an effort to save their dessicated crops.
當局提出，此次停電的原因，可能是北方各州爲了幫助農民從深井中抽取地下水爲乾旱的莊稼灌溉，從電網汲取了超出其配額的電力。
Electricity supplies are already under heavy pressure as increasingly affluent Indians acquire more fans, televisions, air-conditioners and other appliances, and manufacturers expand their operations.
隨着印度富人擁有越來越多的電扇、電視、空調、以及其他家電，加之製造商拓展業務規模，電力供應已經處於較大的壓力中。
Businesses complain they are often first to be sacrificed as the government grapples with power shortages.
企業抱怨，政府在應對電力短缺的時候，他們往往首先成爲犧牲品。
While power-generation capacity has increased through private investment in recent years, much of the new capacity is in India's coal-rich but comparatively poorer eastern region, where energy demand is more subdued. The antiquated state-run power grid, operated by the Power Grid Corporation of India, is struggling to transmit surplus electricity generated in the east to the heavily industrialised and more affluent northern and western regions.
儘管近些年由於私人投資，印度發電能力有所增加，但新增電力主要分佈在煤炭資源豐富、相對較貧窮的東部地區，而這些地方的能源需求不高。由印度電網公司(Power Grid Corporation of India)運行的陳舊的國家電網，難以把東部剩餘電力輸送到高度工業化和更加富有的北部和西部地區。
