Grid India issues advisory to regional power load centres for mock drill

New Delhi: The Grid Controller of India Ltd (Grid India) has sent advisories to regional power load dispatch centers ahead of the civil defence mock drill to be conducted on Wednesday in 244 districts, people aware of the development said. Critical parameters, such as grid frequency, voltages, line loadings and interconnecting transformer loadings are to be closely monitored, according to one of such advisories “issued in view of the information available in media” dated May 6, seen by ET.

Grid India, which ensures optimum scheduling and despatch of electricity among the regional load centres, has suggested that proactive actions should be taken to keep loading parameters within permissible limits.

The drill will include “crash blackout measures” in the select districts during which the grid stability may need to be ensured. However, the fluctuation may not be very high as the probable blackout is to be in the selected districts only, according to a government official.

A similar exercise was conducted in 2020, though at a much larger scale, when the government had decided on a 9-minute ‘lights out’ event, which was successfully managed in maintaining the frequency.

In the latest advisory, Grid India said the healthiness of main as well as backup control centers needs to be ensured and adequate reserves also need to be maintained with power generating and pump hydro stations to be regulated for managing variations in demand and maintaining grid frequency.

The national load desptach center said all regional entities should conduct their demand forecasts and generation scheduling prudently to maintain power injection and drawl as per schedule.

Availability of auxiliary supply through UPS and diesel generators is to be ensured at national, regional and state load despatch and generation control centers and substations with adequate fuel stock needs.