Safety plan is in place to avert grid collapses: Goyal

Says power system development fund which has recently been operationalised will also be used to implement various protection schemes for grid security

A safety plan is in place to monitor efficient functioning of power grids and avert their collapses," Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said.

"Yes sir," he said in reply to a question on whether the government has formulated a safety plan to avert grid collapses.

"The Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC) issued by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) contains the details of administrative and technical steps including safety plan to monitor efficient functioning of the power grids so as to avert grid collapses," he said in Rajya Sabha.

"Various defence plans include, inter-alia, islanding schemes, under frequency relays, special protection schemes, and automatic demand management schemes for secure grid operation," he said.

It may be noted that northern electricity grid suffered a load loss of 8,000 MW, including 3,500 MW in the national capital, during a storm in the region in May.

The overall operation of the inter-regional grids is supervised by the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC)and the operation of the regional grids is supervised by the Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs), the minister said.

"The funds for functioning of NLDC/RLDCs are collected from various power utilities as per Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Fees and Charges of Regional Load Dispatch Centre and other related matters) Regulations, 2009," he said.

Further, the power system development fund (PSDF) which has recently been operationalised would also be used to implement various protection schemes for grid security, he added.