Even beside economic and pricing issues that can eat away at percents, a perfectly managed system could have surplus 20 hours of the day and a deficit 4 hours a day. You need significant excess power to avoid blackouts in a world without very cheap batteries.

That is the very definition of shortage. We are sure not discussing things like peak load capacity here.

> We are sure not discussing things like peak load capacity here.

Right. I'm talking about how there can be an average surplus and also a peak shortage at the same time.

Articles talking about "power surplus" can't seem to decide if they mean average or peak, and I can't find an official definition of the term.

India is technically a power surplus country. The distribution is owned by the states, perhaps, you should question the Karnataka Govt.There is a mobile app where you can see the available power in India if the state can't meet needs, all they have to do is, buy power.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxb.powera...

Sounds more like network over-loads and distribution issues than overall power shortages to me. Both result in power outages, yet are different fish to fry.