Honourable Prime Minister of India has asked people of this great country of ours , India, to switch off their domestic lights only & come out on verandas or roof tops of their flats, houses, dwellings – while maintaining social distancing.

It is needless to emphasise that he has urged upon us to demonstrate our solidarity by demonstrating our determination, commitment & courage to defeat CORONA virus.

Togetherness & unity of the Nation, in this endeavour, will be effectively visible in the night when we light up multiple lamps, candles or put on the flashlights of our mobile phones as a symbol of our determination to fight the darkness represented by the corona virus.

Multiple rumours & questions being asked about whether the Electric Grid will face similar problems as happened on two consecutive days on 30^th & 31^st of July 2012 have only one answer & that is an emphatic “NO”. This is because of the fact that a lot of augmentation has taken place in our well planned & networked T&D systems with latest “Four Hierarchical Load Dispatch Centers” which have their own dedicated communication system, at local, States, Regional & National levels, backed with stringent ‘Regulatory Guide Lines” implemented after July 2012 Grid Failures.

After announcement of “National Lock-down” in wake of corona pandemic the peak power demand in the country has come down from 170 Gigawatts to 125 Gigawatts thus forcing to take out more than 250 trunk transmission lines of 400 KV and above. The switching off of domestic lights may bring down the power demand by another 10 to 12 Gigawatts ie 10% of the current demand. This is not a big deal. It can be managed by using our hydro & gas fired power plants which can be backed out or connected to power grid instantly. A pertinent example is a car where we accelerate or decelerate it as per the need of the moment.

To conclude we must appreciate those years of electric grid operations when we had radial T&D systems & dispersed sources of generation & load centres working under a grid frequency regime of 48.5 Hz & 51.5 Hz with obsolete load management systems. Today’s Grid Frequency regime is 49.95 Hz to 50.05 Hz akin to world standards with enough generation at load centres backed with Hydro & Gas plants.

Have faith in “Power Fraternity”

Dr. R.P.Singh

Retired Chairman cum Managing Director,

POWERGRID