Kerala has announced ‘restrictions on supply’ of power after experiencing a cascading impact of failure of grids in north and east on Tuesday.
An official of theKerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) told Business Line that the evacuation mechanism for external supplies had collapsed for the day.
BIG SHORTFALL
“There has been an estimated shortfall of 980 MW in the supplies normally contracted,” the spokesman said.
The present allocation to the State from central generating stations is about 1,038.7 MW. The State has had to resort to unannounced load shedding on Tuesday, he added.
“The restrictions on supplies are expected to be lifted on tomorrow (Wednesday) itself. We’ve been made to understand the northern grid itself would resume operations by that time.”
Three major grids – northern, north-eastern and eastern – had crashed on Tuesday affecting at least 20 States.
The simplest reason behind the massive grid failure is that States have withdrawn more power than they are entitled to, which tripped the grid.
As the peak load deficit is about 15,000 MW, without grid discipline, such failures are bound to happen, said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director-general of centre for science and environment, New Delhi.
Most States do not have any system in place that can stop them from withdrawing more power from the grid than what is allocated.