Institution of Engineers (India) Congratulates Power Engineers of the Country for Excellent Operation

Institution of Engineers (India) Congratulates Power Engineers of the Country for Excellent Operation of National Grid during pan India ‘Lights Switch Off’ Event.

Er.  Narendra  Singh,  President,  The  Institution  of  Engineers  (India)  congratulated  the  power engineers  of  the  Country  working  in  National  Load  Despatch  Centre,  State  Load  Despatch Centres, Power Grid, DISCOMs, Transmission Utilities, NTPC, NHPC, SJVNL, THDC, IPPs etc. who  rose to the occasion to meet  this  unprecedented  challenge   and  managed    the  National  Grid operations successfully, maintaining the  power system parameters during the ‘lights switch off’ event on 5^th April.

Heeding to the call of Hon’ble Prime Minister, about 23 crore consumers (18 crore rural households and 5 crore urban households), at 9 PM on 5th April, voluntarily switched off their lights for 9 minutes. This resulted in abnormal load fluctuation – large reduction of power within 2-4 minutes and then sudden recovery 9 minutes later, which called for extremely careful planning and power management at the generation end as well as in the Transmission and Distribution elements.

While sharing the incident with Press and Media, President, The Institution of Engineers (India) said that the total reduction in all India demand recorded during the event was 31089 MW. The all-India  demand  which  was   1,16,880  MW  at  8.45 pm   started  reducing,  reaching a  minimum demand of 85,799 MW at 9.10pm. Subsequently, the demand started picking up and settled to around 1,14,400 MW at 10.10pm. The meticulous planning and grid management resulted in maintaining the Grid Frequency during the entire period in the range from 50.26 Hz to 49.70 Hz. The reduction of the total 10950 MW generation capacity during this period was shared by the three major sources - thermal (6992 MW), gas (1951 MW) and wind generation (2007 MW). Advance actions such as switching off transmission lines, changing SVC, STATCOM, HVDC set points etc. were taken prior to the event for keeping voltages and line loading within permissible limits.

Er. Narendra Singh, President, The Institution of Engineers (India)  said that  in this challenging conditions,  operation  of Indian National Grid,  which  is  largest  Synchronous  Grid  in the world, with  stability,   has  been  a momentous and  remarkable  achievement for  which Power  engineers  of  the  country  deserve  accolades.

While lauding the extraordinary work being done by medical professionals in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, he highlighted the fact that engineers are contributing significantly during this ‘lock-down’ period by maintaining a variety of essential services and many are also engaged in innovating much needed cost-effective medical equipment such as ventilators.

Tiruchirapalli Local Centre of IEI congratulates all Power Engineers for the excellent planning in handling the light off at 9 pm on 5 April 20. In this regard the press release issued by the president of IEI is given below.

For more details contact: 

Dr N.Kumaresan,Chairman, IEI Tiruchirapalli Local Centre M.No.9489089101