Another power grid collapse averted

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 6. The Union Power Ministry has now revealed that within two days of the collapse of the northern power grid, a repeat situation was barely averted on January 4. Apparently, the collapse was averted since the Power Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, issued immediate instructions to back down generation and not overload the transmission system.

In view of the frequent crises situation, Mr. Prabhu has also written to all Chief Ministers to ensure that their State Electricity Boards (SEBs) maintain strict grid discipline and resort to load shedding if and when necessary. The Minister pointed out in his letter that the nation could not tolerate indiscipline which had been leading to grid collapses, causing tremendous loss to the economy. The Chief Ministers have also been asked to take an immediate review of the pattern of drawals from the regional grids and ensure that the drawals, under no circumstances, exceed the quantum scheduled by the regional load despatch centres.

Since the Power Ministry has learnt that similar grid indiscipline, as was observed in the northern region, was taking place in other regions also, Mr. Prabhu has decided to visit all the regional load despatch centres. He will begin his tour with the Maharashtra centre.

Mr. Prabhu's letter also pointed out that a preliminary analysis had shown that grid discipline was one of the major causes responsible for the collapse of the northern grid on January 2. Grid discipline in the Indian context means overdrawal when the grid frequency is low, over-generation when the grid frequency is high, not complying with load despatch centre's urgent instructions, by-passing under-frequency load shedding relays and drawing excessive reactive power due to backlog in shunt capacitor installation.

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Section  : National
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