State all set to turn its lights off

No need for alarm regarding grid stability, say officials

05/04/2020, T. RAMAKRISHNAN,CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu is all set for a smooth implementation of the nine-minute-long ‘lights-off’ event on Sunday night, officials have said.

In the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to switch off electric lights at houses for nine minutes from 9 p.m. on Sunday, senior officials of the State power utilities – the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation and the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation – are of the view that there is no need to assume that other electrical appliances also have to be switched off. There is no bar to their use, according to the authorities.

A senior official of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India suggested that, to be on the safe side, ceiling fans should be used for 15 minutes, from 8.55 p.m. till 9.10 p.m.

At the all-India level, the reduction in power demand is expected to be in the order of 12,000 megawatts (MW). By applying this yardstick, in the case of Tamil Nadu, it is going to be around 1,100 MW to 1,200 MW. As the drop or surge is going to be about 10% of total usage, it is within each regional or State grid’s fluctuating efficiency, another official clarified. On Friday evening (at 6.55 p.m.), the peak demand of the State was 11,227 MW.

As for issues concerning grid stability in Tamil Nadu, a top official felt that there was no need for alarm. Even the question of resorting to ‘islanding’ — a process by which a State separates itself from its regional grid in times of grid crash — does not arise.

Notwithstanding the assurances of the authorities, M.G. Devasahayam, civil society activist and former chairman of the now-abolished Haryana State Electricity Board, was of the view that while there was no harm in people lighting lamps to express solidarity with those working on alleviating the impact of COVID-19, the ‘lights-off’ event carried the “risk of causing grid collapse”. It would not serve the public interest, he contended.