Excess power led to grid collapse
Unlike what happened in northern grid on Monday, the eastern grid did not collapse on Tuesday due to overdrawal of power. Ironically, it collapsed due to excess power in the grid and West Bengal suffered heavily without being responsible.
Before the northern grid was restored fully, it once again collapsed on Tuesday which led to simultaneous collapse in the eastern and north-eastern grids. In India, eastern, north-eastern, northern and western grids are directly connected with each other, while southern is indirectly connected. Any massive collapse in one grid, excepting southern grid, can throw the four grids out of gear and that is exactly what happened on Tuesday when three grids collapsed simultaneously.
Though the exact reason for the northern grid’s failure on Tuesday is yet to be ascertained, the officials involved in the grid management suspect that it collapsed due to overdrawal of power by Uttar Pradesh. The northern and western grids are connected with each other at two points: Agra and Gwalior. Due to the excessive demand in the northern grid, these two points tripped after failing to draw its requirement from western grid which was then at demand-supply equilibrium. The northern grid immediately collapsed.
On the other hand, the eastern grid which was in power surplus situation at that point of time could not flow its excess power to the northern grid through Muzaffarpur and Gorakhpur points as the northern grid had already collapsed. The excess power in the eastern grid also could not flow to the western grid through points at Rourkela and Raipur as the western grid was in demand-supply equilibrium. Failing to evacuate excess power from the system, the eastern grid collapsed and the north-eastern grid also met the same fate as it is connected with the eastern grid. “Power always flows and if its flow is stopped then the system collapses and that is what happened today in the eastern grid,” officials reasoned.
A power sector expert blamed the intervention of political functionaries for this collapse. “Very good concept was brought in the form of ABT (availability based tariff) which punishes a constituent if it exceeds/underdraws his quota and rewards if it follow the discipline. As we are all connected in the grid, if one is indisciplined it affects others and as a result the grids collapse like a pack of cards. The power sector officials are well aware of this but they have been forced by the political leaders to break the discipline,” he said.
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