The heatwave currently bearing down on the Indian subcontinent has made headlines around the world for the threat it poses to the health and livelihoods of millions of people, with doctors reporting a rise in heatstroke symptoms and warning that prolonged exposure to such extreme conditions can be deadly.

But what is also being exposed is a lesser-known vulnerability: that of an energy system that quickly gets strained beyond its maximum capacity when there is a dramatic rise in demand for power to keep ACs, fans and fridges going in homes and hospitals when it’s too hot outside.

Temperatures touching the mid-to-high 40s (degrees Celsius) are not usually seen in north India and Pakistan before May, but this year they started in the second week of April, stretching the hot season by weeks. The unseasonal heat has alarmed scientists, who say it carries the footprint of climate change. Mariam Zachariah, a climate scientist at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London in the UK, says that the temperatures in South Asia at the moment are “uncanny.”

Read the full article about heatwave in India by Lou Del Bello at Eco-Business.