A plan has been drawn up to
ensure that the Western Region Power Grid does not collapse when people switch off house lights in response to prime minister's appeal on Sunday, a senior official said here.
Energy departments of some states have expressed fear that sudden dip in power consumption at 9 pm on Sunday followed by sudden surge when lights are switched on again could cause the national grid to collapse, causing a blackout.
In Madhya Pradesh, it has also revived memories of a shut-down of the Western Region Grid in July 2002.
"We are going to reduce power generations from our coal-fired power stations in the run-up to 9 pm tomorrow. From 9 pm onwards we will rely on hydel power stations as the electricity generation of these plants can be reduced or ramped up easily," said the Jabalpur-based State Load Dispatch Centre's chief engineer K K Prabhakar.
Madhya Pradesh has excess 3,000 MW capacity, Prabhakar told PTI.
"We don't have to worry in case power demand shoots up as we have enough power at our disposal to meet it," he added.
On the night of July 30, 2002, states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Chhattisgarh plunged into darkness and some electricity-powered trains came to a halt when the Western Region Grid collapsed.
Madhya Pradesh was blamed at the time for drawing excess power from the grid, bringing down its frequency drastically and causing the blackout.
According to experts, a grid's ideal frequency is between 49.9 and 50.05 Hertz.
"The possibility of a grid collapses increases when its frequency nosedives due to excess drawing of power compared to availability in the system. Also, frequency shoots up when excess power is available against less demand in the system, due to which sometimes there is a risk of collapse of the grid," power expert R K Verma said.
Sudden jump in frequency is more dangerous as it blows up the grid, another expert said.
Verma, former chairman and managing director ofMadhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company, was Chief Engineer of the State Load Dispatch Centre when the WRG collapsed in 2002, and played an important role, alongwith others, in restarting it.
He said there was no reason to fear a repeat, because this time the fluctuation would not be unexpected.
"Due to the lockdown for coronavirus, the power demand is minimal. The industrial demand, I think, is mere 20 per cent of normal demand," he said.
Also, he said, during the nine minutes when people would switch off lights, other appliances such as refrigerators and air-conditioners will be on.
"So the grid's frequency won't go up drastically with less withdrawal," Verma said. Moreover, latest technology has made grids safer, he added.
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