Ongole: Electricity department ready to protect grid during switching off of lights

Ongole: When the whole country remains focused on whether or not switching off the lights is good or necessary on Sunday night, the power employees are glued to the demand-supply problem.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted the nation to switch off all lights at homes and light up Diya or candle as a mark of every Indian's fight against the coronavirus, at exactly 9 pm on April 5, 2020, for nine minutes. Following the call given by the Prime Minister, the load dispatch centres in the State have jumped into action and started tabulations on the sharp load reduction on the power grid and the necessary steps to be taken by the field officers to prevent any outages.

In July 2012, India experienced a massive failure in power transmission due to the sudden change in grid frequency and nearly 70 per cent of the people, apart from South Indian States, in the country experienced the blackout. The South Indian States joined the national power grid only in 2014 and if the grid trips at any corner of the country, the South also will face the consequences. The State government has advised the Electricity Department to see all reactors are kept in service while the capacitors are kept out of service.

They also advised them to ensure the healthiness of all under frequency relays and others and keep them in service.

The Chief Engineer of Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited, K Surendra Babu, said that the State was regularly experiencing a 7,000 MW load during the said time and is consuming 150 million units daily. He told The Hans India that the government had instructed them to take necessary measures to protect the grid from tripping. He said that as the Prime Minister had advised to switch off the lights only, the sudden drop in the load could be managed.

The superintending engineer of Grid Operations, AKV Bhaskar, said that there would be no considerable issues if only lights are switched off and the other home appliances continue to run. He said that during the 'one hour power off' as part of the observation of World Environment Day for the last few years, they had successfully managed the sudden load drops and rises. He said it was expected that there would be a maximum of 600 MW load drop in Andhra Pradesh and a total of 6,000 MW in the southern States. He said that they were expecting a maximum load drop of 16,000 MW in the country.

He said that they had sent out messages to the people on WhatsApp to not switch off any other home appliances except the said 2 or 3 lights at their homes to save the grid from tripping. Bhaskar said that the lockdown had reduced 20 per cent of the load on the grid already, but increased about 300 MW load in the domestic category.

The Prakasam District Superintending Engineer of APSPDCL, NVS Subbaraju, said that they were also suggesting that the farmers use the agriculture motors from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm and the people to use fans, ACs and other equipment. He said that they were expecting a maximum drop of 100 MW in the 400 plus MW load in the district.