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Minister congratulates power grid for ‘great job’ during lights out
Power Minister R K Singh monitored the power grid operations from National Power Monitoring Centre in Shram Shakti Bhawan in Delhi during the blackout.
Union power minister (Independent Charge) R K Singh Sunday night congratulated power grid operators for dong “a great job” during the nine-minute lights out at 9 PM flowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to switch off lights and light candles or diyas in a symbolic drive to mark the fights against coronavirus..
“National grid operator POSOCO and the national, regional and state load despatch centres did a great job with support from all generators; NHPC, NEEPCO, THDC, SJVNL, BBMB, NTPC, all state gencos and IPPs, Transcos and Distribution companies and their officers and staff,” Singh said according to ANI.
The minister said voltage was kept stable during the period of the lights out.
“Demand went down from 117300 Megawatts at 2049 hrs to 85300 MW till 2109 hrs; a reduction of 32000 MW. Then it started increasing. Frequency was maintained within a band of 49.7 to 50. 26 Hz, which means voltage was kept stable,” he said.
Singh, along with the Power Secretary and other senior officers monitored the power grid operations from National Power Monitoring Centre in Shram Shakti Bhawan in Delhi during the period of lights off.
The minister said there was huge response to Prime Minister’s call to switch off lights.
On Saturday, the power ministry had clarified that the PM’s call for switching off lights would not cause instability to the power grid amid concerns over a possible grid collapse.
The demand for power has dropped 30% demand due to the absence of commercial activity in the wake of the nationwide lockdown, and there were fears that the Prime Minister’s call could encourage people to switch off everything, reducing demand even more.
A drop in demand could have resulted in a sudden change in grid frequency, leading to a potential blackout.
