The power utilities of Telangana are totally geared up to mange the grid frequency in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to people across the country to switch-off lighting in their homes for nine minutes from 9 p.m. on Sunday, as a mark of solidarity in the fight against COVID-19.
Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Trsnco and TS-Genco D. Prabhakar Rao said on Saturday that all necessary steps were being taken to address the sudden fluctuation in the demand (load) before and after the event as also during the nine-minute period. He stated that they have estimated that the load reduction could be in the range of 500 MW to 700 MW in Telangana as it would be only from the domestic sector. They were prepared to manage the demand slump even up to 1,100 MW during the period.
Appeal to people
He, however, appealed people to continue energy consumption for their other domestic needs such as for refrigerator, air-conditioner, other home and kitchen appliances such as fans, television sets, grinders as also the domestic and agricultural pump-sets, dome during the period, as usual.
A special monitoring cell has been put in place to manage the demand variation and to ensure smooth and safe operation of the grid. The cell would be operational at the State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) at Vidyut Soudha.
Mr. Prabhakar Rao further stated that the SLDC would continuously monitor the load and generation patterns and would take instant corrective actions in coordination with the Southern Regional Load Dispatch Centre at Bengaluru. All the extra high voltage (EHV) sub-stations and 33/11 KV sub-stations would be personally manned by the engineers concerned for scrupulous implementation of the grid safety mechanism.
‘Don’t believe rumours’
He also appealed to the consumers not to believe the rumours being spread through social media about the grid safety and asked consumers to utilise energy for all other needs except lighting during the nine-minute period as the electricity engineers and other staff would put in all efforts to overcome the situation.
Meanwhile, the Power System Operation Corporation (POSCO), which monitors the demand-supply position round-the-clock, said that there were 4,38,54,642 rural household and 46,68,665 urban household consumers in the SRLDC purview and the total load reduction during the nine-minute period is estimated at 2,660 MW in the Southern Region.
The POCSO has also stated that the total rural household consumers are 61,57,086 and the urban household consumers are 4,42,654 in Telangana and the total load reduction would be about 352 MW with 80% of consumers switching off the lights by responding to the PM’s call.
