Tuesday’s linking of the southern power grid to the national grid will reduce the possibility of the recurrence of the massive power outage in India a year and half ago, and also improve the quality of power in the country.

The July 30-31, 2012 outage had crippled northern and North-eastern States for several hours and more than 50 crore people went without power. This was the largest power outage in India’s history, and exposed the country’s infrastructural weaknesses.

“Now that all the five regional grids are interlinked, chances for such blackouts are very low,” M. Muhammedali Rawther, Member, Electrical Generation, Kerala State Electricity Board, told Business Line .

“The load flow will be smoother and overdrawal of power by individual States from the national grid can be controlled better.” It was the overdrawal by certain States in the peak of summer that had led to the crash of the national grid and the two-day outage in 2012.

The southern power grid was synchronised with the national power transmission network on the New Year’s Eve, thus facilitating seamless flow of power across the five regional grids.

Rawther pointed out that the national grid would now operate on a single frequency.

“The load flow will be smoother, power supply will be more reliable and there will be fewer voltage fluctuations,” he said. “The overall quality of power will improve.” Load control would be more efficient and easier.

“The technicians at the national load dispatch station in New Delhi can now control load anywhere in the country.”

> basheer.kpm@thehindu.co.in

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