Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for switching off the lights for 9 minutes at 9pm on Sunday (April 5) to express solidarity in fighting coronavirus (COVID-19) has turned into a cause of worry for the energy sector and the power grid managers in the country.
While the energy authorities across the country will have to swing into action, due to steep fall and rise in the power consumption load, the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation (TANTRANSCO) has issued an internal circular with detailed instructions to all its executive engineers.
The circular has five specific instructions. It says “all the executive engineers with sufficient staff to be made available in their headquarters on April 5 from 8pm to 10.30pm; all capacitor banks to be monitored for appropriate operation; if necessary, tap changers may be operated in consultation with SLDC to maintain the correct voltage profile; idly charged lines or cables may be switched off if necessary in consultation with SLDC or control centre; time-to-time instruction given by SLDC shall be followed to maintain the system voltage and system stability.”
The circular also says that the demand lighting load is expected to have a steep fall around 9pm and a steep rise around 9.09pm and so “all EEs are requested to adhere to the instructions”.
According to highly placed sources in the Tamil Nadu electricity department, the switching off of the lights, though it might not cause a major disruption in power distribution, will alter the overall load. As Modi’s call is to switch off lights, it might not interrupt the power consumption in terms of other domestic load like usage of refrigerators or television or air-conditioner. While the lighting load consumes 50 per cent of the domestic power supply, the remaining load has to be available for consumption.
Tamil Nadu’s average consumption per day has come down as industrial usage has hit a new low after the lockdown as announced. Domestic consumption in Tamil Nadu is 18 per cent of the total consumption. And during the nine-minute period, the officials expect that the demand might drop by at least 2,000MW.
