Fears abound whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to switch off lights on Sunday will lead to a collapse of the electricity grid across a locked-down nation. From the science of power distribution to the laws of physics, the debate over this has now crossed over into politics, ideology, centre-state relations, as well as some good old fashioned Twitter slugfest.
It all started with Modi’s video message on Friday morning, exhorting the nation to switch off their electric lights on Sunday night at 9pm for nine minutes and light candles, diyas or torches. The move was to mark the nation completing half-way period of the ongoing 21-day lockdown, and the second of his nationwide community tasks to express solidarity in the fight against COVID-19, like the taali-thaali exercise on the day of janta curfew on March 22.
The hitch this time? Worries whether the sudden dramatic reduction in power will cause a domino effect of the power supply grid collapsing due to the sudden variation and subsequent voltage fluctuation.
“Some apprehensions have been expressed that this may cause instability in grid and voltage fluctuation which may harm electrical appliances,” said a power ministry announcement on Saturday evening, “These apprehensions are misplaced. The Indian electricity grid is robust and stable and adequate arrangements and protocols are in place to handle the variation in demand.”
The worries stem from the fact that India’s power distribution system works on an interconnected network based on an estimate of how much the electricity demand would likely be, with supply done accordingly. The demand-supply balance is required to maintain a normal optimum frequency of around 50Hz. The worry is that any dramatic fluctuation in this frequency, like when crores of households switch off (or later switch on) their lights at 9pm on Sunday, for example, could lead to the grid tripping.
Remember those power cuts during peak summer when everyone switches on their ACs, leading to increase in demand? That ‘load shedding’ by your local electricity boards was to reduce the frequency fluctuation. Now, multiply that local scenario by hundreds of thousands across the entire country—that is the fear for Sunday night.
Further accentuating the matter is that with offices, commercial establishments and factories closed, India’s power grid is already operating on reduced capacity—the peak electricity demand has fallen from 160GW before lockdown to125GW presently, a drop of 25-28 per cent (some reports put this figure as high as 40 per cent). “It is probably the first time in our living memory that power consumption has fallen,” Girishkumar Kadam, sector head and vice-president, corporate sector ratings at ICRA, told THE WEEK, adding, “If energy consumption dips further on Sunday for nine minutes, followed by an upsurge in demand once lights are switched on, the State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDC), along with central bodies, have to together plan for ramping up and ramping down accordingly.” The fear is that the fluctuation may be too much for the frequency to adjust.
The matter was brought to the power ministry’s notice right after the PM’s exhortation on Friday itself, with Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh holding a meeting with officials of the Power Grid Corporation of India as well as the Power System Operation Corporation.
While both bodies assured the minister that they will be able to manage the grid stability for the event, Power Grid Corporation has issued a special duty order to all station in-charge and operation staff, asking them to be on high alert and ‘extreme vigil.’ Calls and emails from THE WEEK to Power Grid chairman and secretary were unanswered at the time of publication of this report.
“On our part, we will continue to do everything possible to ensure uninterrupted access to our platforms to facilitate 24x7 supply in these tough times,” said Rajiv Srivastava, MD & CEO of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX). Added an IEX official, “The lighting load going off for 9 minutes on 5th April can be managed with collective efforts from utilities, generators and consumers.”
The SLDCs held a video conference on Saturday to discuss their preparedness. According to power ministry sources, the plan is to go in for graded load shedding about an hour before the ‘event’ and then restart the supply also in a slow and step-by-step manner after 9.09pm.
The Central government also advised local bodies to keep street lights on. “The lights in hospitals and all other essential services like public utilities, municipal services, and police stations will remain on,” the govt statement reiterated. This should also help in further mitigating issues, if any, arising out of a dramatic fluctuation, it is hoped.
The grid collapse fear spilled on to Twitter as well, with battle lines being drawn on party and ideological lines. While Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh, warned of ‘deep impact’, ruling party supporters were quick to respond, arguing they had vested interests in mocking the PM’s initiative and pointing out how the annual observance of ‘Earth Day’ every year did not lead to any blackouts. Hashtags of ‘Grid’, ‘earth day’ and ‘electrical engineer’ were trending through the day on Twitter today.
States are not leaving anything to chance, though. Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation, for example, called on all its electrical engineers to be on standby and monitor all capacitors while Uttar Pradesh SLDC communique warned of a ‘high voltage surge’ in the state’s power grid. Karnataka Power Corporation called on domestic consumers to keep their fridges and other electricity-powered equipment switched on during those nine minutes to balance out the sudden drop in power consumption. BSES Rajdhani Power, which supplies electricity to parts of the national capital, however, responded that it had no advance information on any such scenario. Maharashtra Power Minister Nitin Raut warned how if such a grid collapse scenario came to pass, “it takes 12 to 16 hours to restore power supply.”
India had faced the world’s biggest power blackout just seven years ago, when peak summer surge in power demand led to the collapse of the Northern Grid in July 2012. It led to about 62 crore Indians across 22 states in the north and east of the country going without power for nearly two days.
