'Govt panel did not carry out in-depth probe on grid failure'

The government panel did not carry out "in depth" investigations into the technical issues that caused the failure of electricity grids in July 2012, power sector watchdog CERC has said.
It has called for detailed analysis of the incident, saying that several states had failed to comply with norms.
CERC's observations come over 18 months after the massive collapse of grids that affected power supplies to about half of the country's population. Overdrawal of electricity by some states was cited as one of the reasons for the crisis.
"Considering all the factors in totality, we are of considered view that the technical causes of grid disturbance on July 30, 2012 and July 31, 2012 have not been investigated in depth," the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) said in an order.

"The report of the Enquiry Committee constituted by the Ministry of Power was submitted hurriedly in very short time span of 15 days. Further, detailed analysis of the incidence needs to be deliberated for taking proper lessons for future," the order dated February 22 said.
The high-level committee on grid disturbances, in its report last year, had said that no single factor was responsible for the problems.

As per that panel's report, "overdrawal by some of the Northern Region utilities" and multiple outages of transmission lines were among the reasons for collapse of grids.
According to the 112-page order, there are some violations which are specific to the grid disturbance which need to be addressed.

"We find that the SLDC (State Load Despatch Centre) of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh as well as Power Grid WRLDC (Western Regional Load Despatch Centre), NRLDC (Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre) and NTPC have failed to comply with provisions of the Electricity Act 2003 and various regulations of the Commission and CEA," the order said.
In this regard, the Commission would be issuing notices to them as per provisions of Electricity Act, 2003.
Considered one of the worst collapses, the Northern grid had tripped on July 30, 2012 resulting in massive outages. The very next day, Northern, Eastern and North Eastern grids had failed.

Following the collapse, CERC had directed CEOs of Power System Operation Corporation Ltd's CEO and Power Grid Utility (CTU) to investigate the grid failures. A report in this regard was submitted to the Commission in August 2012.
The report found skewed Load Generation Balance across the regional grids and grid indiscipline, among other factors as cause for the failure.
Based on the findings, CERC on November 16, 2012 had sought responses from various stakeholders.