NEW DELHI: Triggering a major power crisis, three electricity grids connecting more than 20 states and the national capital collapsed on Tuesday.
While the northern grid failed for the second straight day, the eastern and north-eastern grids too collapsed. These three grids carry about 50,000 MW of electricity.
The collapse has left more than half of the country powerless. Essential services and public transport systems, including Railways and the Delhi Metro were also hit.
“Grid incident occurred at 1300 hrs affecting the northern grid, eastern grid and north-eastern grid — System Under Restoration,” National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC), under the Power Ministry, said in an update.
About 22 states and union territories have been impacted by the failure of the three grids.
The northern grid covers nine regions — Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh.
At least six states are covered by the eastern grid. They are West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Sikkim.
Meanwhile, the north eastern grid connects Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
India has five electricity grids — Northern, Eastern, North Eastern, Southern and Western. All of them are inter- connected, except the Southern grid.
All the grids are being run by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation, which operates more than 95,000 circuit km of transmission lines.
One circuit km refers to one kilometer of electrical transmission line.
No power in Delhi, essential services
New Delhi, July 31 (PTI) Entire Delhi went without power for the second successive day today as the Northern Grid tripped again, crippling various essential services such as Metro rail, trains and water distribution system in the city.
Top Delhi Government officials said the situation became complex compared to yesterday with tripping of the Eastern Grid also and it may take a couple of hours to restore supply to the essential services.
The officials said the Northern Grid failed at around 1:30 PM when the national capital had a demand of around 4,300 MW. Only 38 MW was being supplied at around 1:45.
A Power department official said various power generation plants running on hydel, coal and gas had to shut operations due to the tripping of the grid.
Metro operations came to a standstill following the collapse of the grid but operations at the Delhi airport remained unaffected.
“Due to the Northern Grid failure, all trains services have been suspended. Trains are being brought to the nearest station for evacuation,” a Metro station official said.
An airport spokesperson said all essential services were shifted to the diesel generating back-up system. Traffic signals went blank in the city leading to traffic chaos in the entire city.
Trains services and functioning of various hospitals have also been affected due to the outages.
The water distribution system was another casualty of the power cut as functioning of all major water treatment plants across the city came to a halt.
A Delhi Jal Board official said operations at six water treatment plants in the city have been seriously affected due to outages.
Delhi went without power for about eight hours yesterday following collapse of the Grid which affected almost all the essential services.
Officials said Power Minister Harun Yusuf is constantly monitoring the situation and officials are in touch with the Union Power Ministry and Power Grid Corporation, which maintains the Northern Grid.
Delhi government yesterday had accused Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab for overdrawing power from the Northern Grid saying it led to its collapse, and urged the Union Power Minister to direct the states to follow grid discipline.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Power Minister Harun Yusuf had met Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and requested him to direct the states to maintain discipline while drawing power from the Northern Grid.
The Northern Grid, which caters to power supply in nine states and Union Territories — Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh — had collapsed at 2.35 AM yesterday. -PTI
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