PM Narendra Modi called for a 9 minute-blackout at 9 PM on April 5th in India called for a 9 minute-blackout at 9 PM on April 5th in India to express our unity in fight against the deadly virus, but there seems to be possibility of a major issue during that time. With the sudden turning off the lights, there could be a possible grid collapse resulting blackout throughout the country.
The power sector’ big heads are heard to be penning many strategies in a way to avoid the grid collapse and to maintain the grid stability by keeping the power frequency with a range specified by Central Electricity Regulatory Authority. Any Frequency deviation is maintained by increase and decrease of power flow. A sudden drop or hike in frequency may cause a big collapse ending in blackout across the nation.
The Union Power Minister reportedly discussed the issue and PGCIL expressed confidence in maintaining the grid stability. A planned scheduling of power with all the five Regional Load Despatch Centres and National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) will be ready to balance the grid frequency during the blackout time.
The officials from Powergrid corporation agree that this is a situation that could disturb the grid frequency balance, but they say it is not critical and operators are very well prepared to handle any sudden drop in power demand.
Earlier, there were major power blackouts in 2012 on July 30 and 31, that affected most of northern andeastern India. An estimated 27 percent of energy generated in 2012, was lost in transmission leading to grid collapse then
