The Power Ministry today proposed to carry out an independent audit of transmission grids within three months, a move that comes amid massive failures of grids last week that affected half of the country’s population.
The decision was taken at a meeting here chaired by Power Secretary P. Uma Shankar and attended by members of various sectoral bodies and the Power Grid, besides officials from the eight Northern States and Chandigarh, among others.
Sources said one of the resolutions taken at the meeting was to have an independent third-party audit of the protection systems for power grids within three months. The process is to be monitored by regional power committees.
Following the collapse of three grids — Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern — on July 31, the new Power Minister Veerappa Moily had called this meeting of sectoral experts and State Government officials.
Later in the day, Moily is scheduled to meet Chief Ministers from eight Northern States including Delhi and Rajasthan and the administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The tripping of grids on July 31 happened less than 24 hours after the Northern Grid failed and was restored.
During the morning meeting, the members also resolved to put in place adequate defence plans and protection systems to ensure integrated operations of the national and regional grids in adherence with the Indian Electricity Grid Code, sources said.
They noted it was also decided that all the utilities should adopt good operation and maintainence practices. The same would be subject to random checks by regional power committees.
Apart from the Power Secretary, members of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), Power Grid Chairman and Managing Director R. N. Nayak and POSOCO representatives also participated in the meeting.