Friday's thunderstorm caused an 11 GW electricity load crash in North India

According to reports from state load despatch centres in North India, electricity demand fell by half in just 30 to 55 minutes when the storm hit

A sudden and severe thunderstorm on Friday night resulted in a drop of close to 11 GW of electricity load, as reported by state load despatch centres (SLDCs) in the northern region. The storm, which was accompanied by gusty winds, thunderstorms, and lightning, affected several northern states. 

Delhi-NCR witnessed a dust storm in some areas around 2250 and 2300 IST on Friday, May 10, 2024. In the electricity grid map, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttarakhand come under the Northern Region Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC). The total demand of the northern region as of May 10 was 63 GW.

According to the load crash report prepared by the SLDCs and the NRLDC, the electricity load fell by more than half in 30 to 55 minutes. Uttar Pradesh faced the highest crash, 4 GW, followed by Punjab (3.8 GW). Delhi and Haryana had load crashes of 1.5 GW and 2.5 GW, respectively.

Experts said the crash followed two events—a sudden reduction in demand and a preventive outage to avoid transmission-related mishaps. Some experts also pointed to the need to plan transmission networks for such sudden events, given that the NCR region is a high-demand zone.

"Several areas faced power cuts of several hours. Such loss of electricity could be saved if the Delhi NCR area, which is almost a 13 GW demand area with a heavy concentration of industry and commercial areas, were provided with a robust distribution network with underground cables and feeder isolation systems," said Rajiv Goyal, chief executive officer of EKI Power Trading, who in his earlier role has designed power distribution networks for Greater Noida, Aurangabad, Nagpur, and Ayodhya. He added that the NCR Planning Board needs to include power infrastructure in its coordinated network design, fit for high-load-density areas, and arrange funds to develop the same.