It would help to reduce the evening peak energy deficit more effectively and without the difficulties of dividing the country into two time zones
Most Indians are not particularly worried about Indian Standard Time (IST), except for those who live in the Northeast where the sun rises around 4 a.m. in summer, and gets dark well before 4 p.m. in winter. Those of us who have to make overseas long distance calls and get into trouble with fractions are not even aware that we belong to a minority (three per cent) of regions whose standard times are fractional hours off from GMT.
India spans longitudes of 68° at the western end and 98° at the eastern boundary and as there is a difference of one hour for every 15° of longitude, the two extremes differ by two hours. Thus, when the sun sets at 4 p.m. in Kohima, it sets at 6 p.m. in Porbunder. IST was fixed in 1906 midway at 82.5°, or 5/ hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Periodically, there are demands from the Northeast region for a separate time zone so that the clocks there may be advanced by an hour.
There is a general misconception among those who worry about saving energy — such as the Planning Commission — that dividing the country into time zones will save “a lot of energy.” The savings are almost always described by adjectives, for very few have estimated correctly the amount of savings that may accrue by altering IST or creating two time zones. There is also the practice in several countries, of “Daylight Saving Time” (DST), wherein the time in summer is advanced (or the clocks put forward) by one hour and retracted during winter. This enables people to enjoy sunlight longer in summer and avoid the inconveniences of late sunrises and early sunsets during winter.
Load demand data
Our proposal for India is to introduce neither time zones nor DST, but to advance IST by half an hour to being six hours ahead of GMT, once and permanently. Such a suggestion has been made before, but until now no one has computed the energy savings that would accrue as a result using a correct model and dependable data. Our fairly rigorous method has been vetted by national and international experts and is based on data on load demand every minute for two years at five electrical zones of India provided by the Power Grid Corporation of India. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency provided financial support for the study.
Problems of time zones
India has a huge population; if the country were divided into two time zones, there would be chaos at the border between the two zones. It would mean resetting clocks with each crossing of the time zone. There is scope for more dangerous kinds of confusion. Railway signals are not fully automated and many routes have single tracks. Trains may meet with major accidents owing to human errors. Just one such accident would wipe out any benefits resulting from different time zones in the country.
Partitioning the already divided country further into time zones may also have undesirable political consequences. Moreover, our research shows that the energy saving from creating two time zones is not particularly large.
Problems of DST
As is known, the sun always rises at 6 a.m. on the Equator and sets at 6 p.m. irrespective of the season. It is the tilt of the axis round which the earth rotates by 23.5°, that causes the length of days and nights to change as we go further away from the equator towards the north or the south. At the poles the sun does not set for six months and does not rise for six months. In tropical countries, the duration of light and darkness over the seasons does not vary widely. If we were to introduce DST in India, the inconvenience of time adjustment during summer and winter months would involve the whole country, happening twice a year, with marginal benefits. The possibilities of rail accidents would still be high. Even in the U.S. and Canada, road accidents increase discernibly in the days immediately following the change.
Advance IST by half an hour.
Our proposal of advancing IST by half an hour avoids the problems apprehended in the other two proposals (of time zones and DST) but provides maximum energy saving during evening hours when the utilities fail to supply continuous power. Load shedding is common all over the country and power and energy shortages amount to 11 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
How is energy saved?
Energy is saved by longer use of sunlight and consequently less use of energy for lighting. The demand for electricity goes up in the morning for water heating and increases again in the evening for five to six hours, mainly for lighting, declining as people turn off lights and go to bed. The advancement of IST by half an hour only is unlikely to alter their habits and a person waking at 7 a.m. and going to bed at 11 p.m. will continue to do so, but advanced 7 a.m. is unaltered 6.30 a.m. when the sun is already up in most parts of the country, and 11 p.m. is the same as unaltered 10.30 p.m. In other words, people all over India will go to bed and wake up half an hour before they presently do and thus their waking hours will be more aligned to the daily cycle of sunshine. One assumption of course is that office times and factory times remain unaltered. It needs to be understood that people switch on lights not by looking at the watch but by the descending darkness after sunset. If on a particular day it got dark at 6 p.m., in say Mumbai, it will still get dark at the same time but the watch would show 6.30, since it has been put forward by half an hour.
Assuming lights kept turned on for five hours from 6 to 11 (bedtime) now will be kept on from 6.30 to 11 (bedtime), that is for 4/ hours, the half-hour saving on lighting leads to an energy saving of 2.3 billion units of energy per year for the country. This saving amounts to almost 18 per cent of evening peaking energy use, and would partly reduce the deficit that we presently suffer. The savings from time zones and DST are significantly less — the saving due to time zones comes from the eastern zone only, and for DST from half the year. The half-hour advancement of IST provides benefits for the whole country for the whole year. Besides saving energy, a longer sunlit evening would reduce street crimes. Traffic accidents may also come down to some extent.
By advancing IST by half an hour we meet the legitimate demands of the Northeast halfway without any of the inconveniences of time zones or DST. So why not advance it by an hour? It would cause complaints from the northwest about the inconvenience of later winter sunrises.
(D.P. SenGupta was formerly a professor at the Indian Institute of Science and is currently a visiting professor of the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore. Dilip R. Ahuja is ISRO Professor at NIAS. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency commissioned a study by them on quantifying energy savings through advancing IST, based on a paper published by them in Current Science in 2007. Their final report was submitted to the BEE in September 2011.)
Keywords: energy saving, advancing IST, Daylight Saving Time, time zones
Nice article!!! By advancing the clock by half an hour can save tremendous energy which we can use it for other purposes. And even we will be ahead of the world by 30 mins :)
Very informative article!!
I liked the above piece by the respected professors.The idea(advancing the time) has been toying in the minds of many intellectuals and commoners alike for a long time.Useful daylight is being wasted in the Northeastern region and also in the Andamans. Had it been harnessed all these years, it might have changed the whole demography of the Northeast in particular and that of the entire nation in general. But i still doubt the most western side would agree to it, now they would start complaining instead. Maybe two different time zones would be better.And to save the confusion and chaos along the borders and say like to save trains from clashing into each other due to non full automation(which could be done later) ; maybe its best if we have one timezone for the whole Northeast and the Andamans based on and from the Assam - West Bengal border (as also the 90degree longitude almost passes along it ) the other time zone for the rest of the country with the same Mirzapur(Allahabad) basis.
Why bother about time zones? You can have office hours from 8.30AM to 3.30PM during summer and 10.30 AM to 5.30 pm during winter depending upon lighting. Same applies to different states. Different time zones can be very confusing with missed trains, flights etc.
I could not make head or tail of the whole argument. I might be a
dullard. But the simple thing that different time zones will cause train
accidents was something I should have understood. Even that I could not.
US has has some five or so time zones. I don't they have any accidents
due to that . On the other hand we with just a single time zone have
some hundred times accidents. We should go for two time zones and
introduce the concept of DST as is done in advanced countries.
Excellent proposal (well backed up with research and facts) and looks promising.
Strategy will work and bring results : Because the unchanged organizational and institutional operational timings (offices, schools, factories) will make sure all stake holders (employees, factory workers, children and home makers) to advance their daily jobs by 0.5 hr and go to bed 0.5 hr earlier.
Challenges : Smooth transition of this advancement across India. A little confusion in railway/bus-stations during this transition point. We Indians have built tolerance in our blood. Tolerance for everything, Hope this 0.5 hr transition point will not be a problem at all .
I appreciate this article and the implementing agencies must really think about this. This will not only save energy but also improve the health and the lifestyle of the north east people. For eg. the moment I finish watching prime time news on times now or CNNIBN or the Buck stops here @ NDTV.... its already too late and unlike it used to be when I was in Delhi. So a bit late in whatever i do somehow develops a kind of some negative mindset. it is very personal but studies must be conducted and all of us must be serious about implementing it. It will help in the overall well being of the nation.
Professors, to have more sun-lit evening and an early bed time, why not advance the timing of schools and offices by 1/2 hour? This will have exactly the same effect as what you are suggesting. We will sleep early and rise early. But if we advance the clock by 1/2 hour to favor the people of North-East, we will be doing unfavor to the people of India west of Allahabad which has the same geographical as well as political time. And India has more population in the west of Allahabad than in the east of it.
I am in favor of two time-zones. +6 GMT on the east of Allahabad, while +5 to the west of it. The states which comes to the east of Allahabad are Bihar, JH, WB, Odisha, and the NE states. There are many nations which have many time zones and we can ask for their experience in dealing with it. Though switching a two time zones will be a slightly expensive affair, but that will be a one time cost and we will have times zones which will be more near to geographical time of the region.
It would make more sense to have two or more timezones. If you advance the timezone, people benefitted are people in the north and the west - how about us in the east?
A few references and links to the actual paper would be very useful and make the article much more scientific.
Good suggestion killed by bad writing. From the comments, including my previous one, it is clear that the readers did not understand what the problem was (no clue!), what the proposed change was, how exactly the proposed change would solve the problem for "them", and how the solution would affect "us". I would not say the commentators are not intelligent but what we have here is "a failure to communicate". Maybe the scientists should have left the writing to a PR firm (professional writers of English) - and they should have done the writing in a FAQ - Q&A format.
Personally I dont think that such a change in time will be helpful. The author is considering energy saving only during the night time. But what if you got up in the morning and its still dark outside. Obviously, one will switched on the lights,and I think lights consumes power irrespective of when they switched on!!!
Secondly, in India we dont have basic infrastructure. Trains (even flights also now a days) dont run on time, creating timezones or changing the time will not help in anyway.
So I think the time of public Institutions/schools etc should get change according to the season. That can help in some way.
For everybody who is complaining, that we switch on lights only when its dark outside and not according to the watch, that is exactly the point of the article. If we change the time by 1/2 our, the sun's pattern wont change, but we go to work or school based on our watch. When the sun sets, out watch will say 7 pm instead of 6:30. So if we need to go sleep at 10 pm , lights will be used from 7pm to 10pm instead of 6:30 pm to 10 pm.
This is unlikely and by moving the IST 30 minutes forward will not save
energy rather it will create further division to our diversity
(politically) Also International economics does not suit ourselves as it
is.Though scientific the People habits and practices is based on
environment and culture just by changing the clock you can't change the
bio-clock.
Also if done there is every possibility that corporate & government
might utilize (consume) extra 30 minutes from peasants & other masses.
The authors make a strong and compelling case. It is well researched and well presented. It is however not clear where it should be taken up to formulate policy change. Lok Sabha to begin with? Or Rajya Sabha? Will Mr Tendulkar do some real service to the country for a change by taking up this matter with the government?
Having more than one time zone may not be as much of a problem as visualized. People will get used to it.
Russia still uses only one time zone- Moscow time- while geographically it has nine time zones. It causes much hardship for the inhabitants of eastern parts of the country (Vladivostok for example).
China has one time zone too hurting the lifestyles of the people in its western regions.
India is not a totalitarian state. It should not fear to have more than one time zone. Its time zones should be exactly geographical and in a tropical country, there is no need for seasonal changes.
It's not Practical in India. Let it go as going now. !!!
The Andaman Islands should be in the same time zone as Thailand and not mainland India...just imagine their troubles.
Advancing the time in the whole country can work in countries which are smaller in size. A country which spans from 68 degrees to 97 degrees longitude needs different time zones.
Good suggestion. Experienced four time zones in USA. All flights,local/International adjust/adopt the same. But the US population is hardly forty crores but ours 110 plus crores. As majority yet time conscious except educated class how many will be affected. The energy bureau can suitably advise on this matter.
Going to bed based on time? These two academics are classical example of Indian standard. Going to bed is based on habit (life style) and most importantly weather. If they simply check Europe, they can understand this simple fact. Southerners like in Italy and Spain take dinner late and go to bed late due to warm climate, but northerners like Germans take dinner take early and start to sleep early. And what about habits? I have two different life styles. In my village, I usually sleep before 10.00 pm where life is quiet. But when I live in big cities, where I live most of the time, I do not remember when I slept before midnight 12.00. So the main argument does not hold water for the change of time in India. Yes, north east part has problem. But giving totally theoretical argument based on academic is like saying in Tamil “ Eattu surakkai karikku aagathu”.
I dont find any advantage in the proposal. Sun rise and Sun set will happen depending on the seasons but not on our watch or clock. We switch on lights when it becomes dark and not by seeing the time and switch them off when we go to bed. It hardly makes any difference in energy consumption. To really save electrical energy one should inculcate the habit of not using lights during daytime as is being done now in offices. Most of the offices are getting air conditioned and they do not use natural light and natural air. People use lights in offices because it is not their money, they leave them on even if they are not present in the seat. We should think of constructing buildings that use natural light to really save electrical energy.
How about changing office & school timings, without altering IST. For Western India, advance it by an hour. For Eastern India, lag it by an hour. So, western part will have office time 8 to 5. East will have 10 to 7.
Once we get routinized to this schedule, west will wake up early to use morning sunshine, east will wake up late for the same reason. Plus, with this, peak hours will differ by two hours and so, there wont be peak hour shortages at all (considering we are developing robust pan India Grid.) There wont be rail accidents & about inconvenience due to difference in office hours is minimal - as its just an hour difference.
Actually, the better solution will be to have 2 time zones - USA has 4 zones for a lateral spraed of appr. 4,500 miles. Chicago is 10.5 hours behind IST but Eastern Seaboard is 9.5 hours behind. Otherwise this will continue
Thus strikes a Business Idea for Companies working on Energy saving. To conceptualise a new clock which rings the alarm clock when the sun rises irrespective of real time, whether it is 7 am or unaltered 6 30 am. And 'Time to sleep' can be kept calculated by the amount of hours you want to sleep. If a person wants to sleep for 7 hours, then time to sleep can be fixed with respect to what time the sun rose today(as an approximate data).That is 24-7=17 hours after todays sunrise. It just needs a photo diode to get the time of sunrise. And an inbuilt clock.If exposure of light to you clock is an issue then the the sun rise can be sensed by change in temperature. If your are sleeping in Air conditioned room then. A remote sensor kept outside the room can only help. This can be extrapolated to all other needs , but can be deployed only locally.
The assumption is that sleeping time will not be altered. People will continue to go to bed at 11pm (let's say). Thus by reducing electricity usage by half an hour (from 6pm - 11pm to 6.30pm to 11 pm).
Excellent Article, Very informative. Thanks Hindu..!!
The article is good. But please do not apply it. We are already confused. Please do not add more confusion. If at all any change is needed, do not try cosmetic changes
Go for International. Adapt Universal Time Standard.
Nice article, nice discussion, informative, thanks a lot Hindu, we always appreciate your quality and efforts
regards
Arvind
Nice proposal Dr. Sengupta, but won't a drastic change in the body clock with the sun make the transition a bit painful? I mean the body clock was adjusted, say to person living in mumbai to getting up to sun at 7 am, but after altering, will have to get up at "6.30 am" sun?? One more thing, as you are saying about energy saving by going to sleep early; won't it be counterbalanced by waking up early, when the sun might not have risen in most part...
It will be a step in the right direction. If you look at the world, all countries have their timings, +/- whole hour the GMT. India has a unique +5.30 hour.
I feel the initiative to make our Indian standard time(I.S.T) ahead for half an hour is a valuable cost saving venture. More so it will be fruitful for the people in government services. Because private companies pertaining to software follow mostly their client time zone. The new I.S.T will be more economical and energy saving. More awareness has to be brought among the people so that the new I.S.T is implemented at the earliest.
Totally Agreed. When i travlled from New Delhi to Dhaka, i had to
advance my time by 30 minutes. But if i travel to the North East which
is to the east of Bangladesh, still the time remains the same ??? :O
What logic is this ??? And this change will meet the demands of the
North East people and obviously save lot of energy. And i liked the part
where the author mentioned the possibility of crime reduction.
+10 just for experiencing the beautiful sunrises and early sunshine.
Amongst all the suggestions made, this seems the most plausible and
very easily implementable one. Operational hazards & challenges due to
lack of automation in India, do not permit us to have multiple time
zones even though that is "ideal state". Advancing by half hour seems
a very good compromise and does not alter the lifestyle for most
people. Why not give it a try ?
If there is daylight and one can see clearly , why use electricity to light up the house ? Thus, even if the clock says 4 am and it is daylight,no electricity will be used. If it says 7.30 pm and there is ample light, nobody will switch on the lights at home.
Wonder if the suggestion will make any improvement in situation; in general, people resort to lighting only when sunlight lessens to make surroundings dim for view; do not go by time on watch eh!
Same is true for waking up; set alarm depending on working hours that they have to adhere to; no purpose served by change in timing; as for IT based operations, the difference will continue as ever and folks will have adjust as now -no special benefit. Let us live with present state of time and concentrate on other issues.
I appreciate the broad views presented in this article which clearly
states the pro's and con's of the debate about two time zones that
has been going on from a long time.but, somewhere i think, this
article is a bit biased towards the western part of India as most of
the energy savings would be done in the west which roughly follow
the 6 to 11 routine...and this advancement of IST by half n hour will make a person in North East to get up more early..i.e. now at 3.30a.m. if earlier for 4 a.m and his sleeping patterns and durations, habits, etc will be severely affected for the worse if working hours of office and schools are still kept to be the same.We still need to come up with a better solution which can really benefit the Pan-India with more focus on the problems faced by people in the north-east.
The assumptions are extremely questionable. Nice try, though.
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