A possible grid collapse was averted on Monday night after the Delhi Transco Limited spotted heavy overloading of a circuit between Gwalior and Agra and took immediate steps to undertake load shedding.
According to the officials of the DTL, at about 1-51 a.m. the Agra – Gwalior Circuit – I of 765 KV tripped, which caused over loading of the second circuit as well. “The tripping of this circuit could result in collapse of the Northern Grid as had occurred on July 30 and 31 last year. By immediately suspending drawal and carrying out load shedding the Transco was able to save the system,” said an official.
At the time of overloading, shedding to the tune of 500 MW had to be carried out. “Delhi had surplus power at that time and was drawing 50-60 MW less than the allocated quantum from the Grid. But after the load shedding had to be carried out from 2 a.m. onwards several areas including Alaknanda, East of Kailash, Nehru Place, Masjid Moth and their adjoining areas had to face power cut for a period of around 55 minutes. The affected load was normalised by 3-45 a.m.” the official said.
The overloading was attributed to the shortage of power in the Northern Region. “Because of shortage in the Northern Grid, power is being drawn from the Western Grid, which tends to get overloaded. There are several States in North India that are facing a power deficit,” said the official.
Delhi’s islanding scheme that has been approved by the Union Power Ministry is also going to be implemented soon. Once in place, the islanding scheme will shield the city against the after-effects of a power grid collapse.
The peak load on Tuesday fell to 4921 MW from Monday’s high of 5226 MW. The drop in demand has been caused by the change in the weather conditions.
