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Today in History: Historic Power Outage Affects 620 Million in India

7/31/2025

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Summary

Story summary

On July 30-31, 2012, India experienced the largest power outage in history, impacting over 620 million people across 22 states. The blackout, which lasted approximately 13.5 hours, resulted from severe conditions that took 32 gigawatts of generating capacity offline. Power was gradually restored between July 31 and August 1, 2012.

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Story summary

On July 30-31, 2012, India experienced the largest power outage in history, impacting over 620 million people across 22 states. The blackout, which lasted approximately 13.5 hours, resulted from severe conditions that took 32 gigawatts of generating capacity offline. Power was gradually restored between July 31 and August 1, 2012.