In short the reasons for failures are something like this.<p>a. No proper control systems/automation to detect and prevent overload/tripping in case of excessive power consumption by any particular state.<p>b. No back up/redundancy planning.<p>c. The grid architecture is badly designed, and leads to cascading failures of sub grids.<p>d. Low quality equipment which fails often.<p>India's energy infrastructure is ancient. Its patch work for overgrown villages(Read cities) totally incapable of meeting any sort of dependable demands.<p>Add to this massive bureaucracy, license raj and corruption in purchase of equipment in electricity boards. They buy low quality equipment which fails often(because they are bribed to do so), since equipment fails often they buy more.<p>The state of affairs is so bad, transformers fail and burst even if rains a little heavily. What follows next is hours together of effort installing and fixing new transformers. This is a common scenario in many areas in a city like Bangalore. This is apart for hours together scale of unscheduled load shedding which is frequent.<p>On top of this there are frequent protests and lobbying to stop the construction of power plants(Hydel/Nuclear or otherwise).<p>And these are all state controlled monopolies. Recently I heard, Electricity board in Bangalore is complaining against builders of gated communities(Flats and Villas) and forcing them to use Govt supplied equipment. Because the private builders are using better quality equipment which is exposing and is making the Govt board look bad in front of them.<p>Any attempt to correct this system is met by massive political hostility. And people proposing modern changes are perceived as anti-Indian culture capitalist stooges being used by companies in the west to sell their equipment.