Winds spark power cuts
21 May 2009, TNN

NEW DELHI: While the capital has seen a surge in power demand in the last few days, the change in the weather conditions has brought about a
reversal of the usual shortfall problem in peak summer.

During the squall and dust-storm in Delhi, Haryana and western UP on late Tuesday night, the load demand in the northern region crashed by about 4000 MW causing the grid frequency to shoot up beyond the safe limit of 50 Hz. To handle the problem, Power Grid Corporation Ltd (PGCL) diverted the surplus power to eastern and western regions under unscheduled exchange. The problem was such that officials feared it would lead to overloading of transmission lines. This apart, some inter-state transmission lines also tripped during the dust-storm affecting power flow to some regions including the capital.

According to state utility Delhi Transco, there were no outages reported in Delhi in the last 24 hours and the peak demand on Wednesday was at least 200 MW lower than Tuesday's highest seasonal demand of 4020 MW. "There were some problems during the late night hours when some inter-state transmission lines being temporarily out. But apart from that, there was no loadshedding reported and the power situation was well in control,'' said a senior power department official.

Despite tall promises, residents of many colonies in Delhi had a different story to narrate. Deepika Singh, a resident of Lajpat Nagar III in south Delhi recalled that the power supply went off twice during the night for almost an hour each time and then again for about 45 minutes on Wednesday morning. Mrinalini Sinha, a resident of Dilshad Garden, added: "The power supply was very erratic during the night. It kept coming and going at regular intervals. Fortunately, the weather was pleasant enough for it to not be a discomfort.''

Officials from PGCL said that there was shortage of about 100 MW in the power exchange in the night hours due to some lines like Dadri-Mandola and Kanpur-Ballabhgarh being affected. On Tuesday, the 1500-MW Nathpa Jhakri plant in Himachal was also closed for a short while. "These problems have more or less been sorted out. Our focus is only on grid stability. Just as a low frequency can cause complications, it is the same with a very high frequency in the grid when there is excess power available. The sudden load crash had to be diverted to other regions immediately to avoid overloading in the lines,'' said a senior official.