Power dept, utilities plan to balance load after PM’s call to switch off lights
With the peak load demand down to almost half due to the lockdown, the utilities are putting together a plan to handle the nine minutes of lights out smoothly.
The State Load Despatch Center (SLDC) has decided to downscale all the hydro and gas power plants on Sunday to balance the load. (Representational Image)
The power department and utility companies in Gujarat are dispelling people’s fears about tripping or surge and making plans to avoid mishaps on Sunday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed citizens to turn off lights for nine minutes at 9 pm and light candles or switch on torches or mobile phone flashlights, to “challenge the darkness of coronavirus crisis”.
With messages urging people to turn off the entire power supply for nine minutes or warning about a possible surge when power is turned on, surfacing on social media, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited has told the residents that they turn on gadgets without any fear. With the peak load demand down to almost half due to the lockdown, the utilities are putting together a plan to handle the nine minutes of lights out smoothly.
The State Load Despatch Center (SLDC) has decided to downscale all the hydro and gas power plants on Sunday to balance the load.
“The state’s power consumption per day is about 16,000 MW per day. But since the lockdown, it has come down to 9000MW per day. Of this, about 1000 MW is peak hour load – time when maximum household gadgets are working including the lights. So, we will have to manage only about 10 % of the load reduction on April 5 even if people turn off the lights. But if the entire consumption is switched off due to apprehension that the surge could damage appliances, then it will be a problem,” an official told The Indian Express.
“An increase in the power load is accompanied by a concurrent increase in the power supplied to the generators by automatic governors. However, if there is not sufficient power load, even for a brief period of time, then the frequency drops. If the combined output of all the generators cannot supply enough power then the frequency will drop for the entire grid. All the generators slow down. But since this is a planned event, we have time to be prepared to phase out the plants during those nine minutes,” the official added.
A senior official of the GUVNL also said that the officers of the department have been asked to be present at their respective stations and offices on the night of April 5, in order to deal with any untoward incident.
“We have decided to scale down the gas-fired power plants by up to 600MW each (depending on their capacities) during the lights out. Similarly, the hydro plants will also run only up to 20MW capacity. This is in order to balance the load. The same has also been communicated to the private utilities who have gas fired plants in Ahmedabad, Amreli and Hazira. Also our generators are auto-equipped for frequency control. So we are doing our best to ensure that people can keep their gadgets on without the fear of any tripping or surge.”
Gujarat has gas-fired power plants in Utran and Hazira in Surat, Dhruvaran in Bharuch, Vadodara and Pipavav while three hydro power plants are located in Kadana, Ukai and Kevadia.
Officials said that unlike other states that are planning a phased load shedding, gradual downsizing will help.
“Gujarat is a smaller state compared to UP but our electricity consumption on regular days is second highest after Maharashtra. There has sure been anxiety among utility partners as well as officials since we are working day and night in the lockdown time to balance the generation and fallen consumption. But the involvement of the Ministry in preparing an action plan has helped us to be prepared,” said an official.
In a letter, issued to the Principal Secretaries of the Power department of states on Saturday, Secretary of the Union Ministry of Power, Shiv Nandan Sahai, has urged all state utilities to assure people to run their appliances as usual during the nine minutes lights out event.
“The appeal of the Prime Minister to the people is to voluntarily switch off the lights. There is no call to switch off streetlights or appliances like refrigerator, air conditioners and TVs at home. Adequate arrangements are in place to handle variation in demand. The National Load Despatch Center has worked out procedures for grid balancing during the period which they will be communicating to all regional and state load despatch centres,” the letter said.
The letter specially advises the power departments of the states to ask civic bodies to keep their streetlights on to avoid law and order problems.
Shahmeena Hussain, Managing Director, GUVNL said that the utility has not issued any messages on social media urging people to keep their lights turned out.
Private power distribution company Torrent Power, that supplies power to Ahmedabad, Surat, Gandhinagar and Dahej SEZ in Gujarat and to Bhiwandi (Maharashtra) and Agra (Uttar Pradesh) said that on Sunday it will be requisitioning for lower power from the various sources.
Meanwhile, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has started a social media campaign urging residents to join the lights out event on Sunday.
The VMC has also urged people not to step out of their homes during the event. VMC offcials said that the civic body was planning to keep its streetlights and other lights in public places turned on during that time.
(With inputs from Avinash Nair in Ahmedabad)
Aditi Raja is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express Read More
Share
