Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘9 minutes lights out’ call at 9 pm on Sunday virtually had the entire power sector on its toes.

Shailendra Dubey, Chairman of the All India Power Engineers Power Federation (AIPEF), said: “There was an unprecedented load crash of 31,089 MW, which is about 27 per cent of total load at the national level and power engineers worked overtime to see that frequency and voltage were kept within limits and the power did not go out of control.”

Dubey termed the phenomena as unprecedented in Indian power sector’s history. “Power engineers and employees across the country have spent three sleepless nights and untiring efforts to ensure secure and reliable operation of grid,” he said.

The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh, in a statement said, “The demand went down from 1,17,300 MW at 2049 hrs to 85300 MW till 2109 hrs; that is a reduction of 32,000 MWs. Then it started increasing. Frequency was maintained within a band of 49.7 to 50. 26 Hz, which means the voltage was kept stable.”

Dubey said the grid was stabilised through hydro power generation across the country that was maximised by 20:45 hrs and there was a generation reduction of 17,543 MW (from 25,559 MW to 8016 MW) between 20:45 hrs to 21:10 hrs. This was matching with a demand reduction of 31,089 MW during the same period.

“This hydro generation was again ramped up from 8016 MW to 19012 MW from 21:10 hrs to 21:27 hrs to meet the increase in demand after the event. Reduction of total 10950 MW generation was achieved through thermal (6992 MW), gas (1951 MW)· and wind generation (2007 MW) during 20:45 hrs to 21:10 hrs,” Dubey said.

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