Electricity demand went down but frequecy was maintained during PM's 'switch off light' call: Power Minister RK Singh

Union Power Minister RK Singh has informed that demand for electricity supply went down during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'switch off the light' campaign at 9 pm on Sunday for few a minutes but the frequency was maintained and the voltage was kept stable.

"Demand went down from 117300 Megawatts (MW) at 8.49 pm to 85300 MW till 9.09 pm, which was a reduction of 32000 MW. Then it started increasing. Frequency was maintained within a band of 49.7 to 50.26 Hz, which means voltage was kept stable," Singh told ANI.

He said that the national grid operator Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) and the national, regional and state load despatch centres did a great job. "With support from all generators -- NHPC, NEEPCO, THDC, SJVNL, BBMB, NTPC, all state gencos and IPPs, Transcos and Distribution companies and their officers and staff," he said.

Earlier in the day, the Union Power Ministry issued a list of 11 frequently asked questions (FAQs) and their answers in order to allay apprehensions about switching off lights at 9 pm for nine minutes on Sunday as requested by Prime Minister.In the FAQs, the government had stressed that people should switch off only lights at their homes and cleared the Opposition's concerns regarding load on the power grid in case all electrical appliances are turned off simultaneously across the country."Indian electricity grid is well designed to handle such kind of load variation and has several inbuilt levels of control and safety mechanisms to absorb any kind of frequency changes occurring due to such load variation," the Power Ministry said.

People turned off the lights of their houses and lighted earthen lamps across the country on Sunday night, responding to Prime Minister Modi's '9 pm, 9-min' appeal to defeat the coronavirus in the country.