Grid Authorities Prepare for Unprecedented Plunge and Surge Event

The Power System Corporation Ltd. (POSCO), the authority that runs the national grid, has issued an advisory to all RLDCs, SLDCs and the NLDC on precautions to take for ensuring reliable and secure grid operation during the upcoming “event”. 

This “event” is the Prime Minister’s call to switch off and on lights for 9 minutes at 9 PM on Sunday, April 5. The advisory makes clear that the grid authorities do not see this as a minor challenge. They have worked day and night after the PM’s call to see how to manage the “plunge and surge” event that the PM’s call will create. It is a detailed plan, outlining the problem the grid is going to face as a consequence of this call, the possible magnitude of the problem and a series of 26 points that all the grid operators and power stations should follow in order to meet the sudden plunge of load, followed by a surge after 9 minutes. 

It even has a provision for black start in case the grid collapses. 

Privately, the engineers and power workers are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping these measures will be enough to ride out the crisis without a grid collapse. But they are living in uncertainty as nobody has ever seen a plunge and surge of this magnitude on a live grid.

My colleagues and I had calculated the magnitude of the power plunge and surge that we are likely to see. We had estimated that it is going to be of the order of 10-20% of the total grid load at the time, or 10 GW to 20 GW. POSCO’s figures are “...that total domestic lighting load reduction on all-India level is anticipated to the tune of 12-13 GW.” 

POSCO also states that this is an unprecedented event, as, “Unlike normal operation, this reduction in load of the order of 12-13 GW would happen in 2-4 minutes and recover nine minutes later within 2-4 minutes.” So for all those blind followers of Modi, the crisis for the grid is real, and not coming from his critics and doomsday sayers. 

How good will these measures prove? If we go through the list of measures, they are quite comprehensive indeed. They have outlined how the grid—meaning all the load despatch centres, national, regional and state—would need to prepare for this “event” and work together. Broadly, they are allowing the slower, coal-fired stations to ramp down before the event and the faster-acting hydro- and gas-based stations to carry a significant part of the load as they can react faster to this plunge and surge phenomena. 

They have also a range of actions for “generation and maintaining frequency” (11 points), “voltage control measures” (6 points) and “general guidelines” (9 points). Apart from these guidelines, they have also asked the senior staff of all generating stations, substations, Load Despatch Centers (LDCs) to be present between 18:00 to 22:00 hrs on 5 April 2020. In other words, to prepare for war between 6 and 10 PM, preparing for the “event” and the return to normal after it. 

In case the grid fails, the instructions also include provisions for restoration of service under grid failure (black start). “All the entities shall ensure black start facilities mentioned in the restoration procedures of RLDCs are in healthy condition.” In other words, POSCO accepts—unlike Modi bhakts—that there is a possibility of a grid failure under this “unprecedented event”. 

I am not going to discuss the cost of this event, and the hit that all generating and grid-connected equipment would take under this artificial event. I am also more confident today than yesterday that the grid authorities have made comprehensive preparation for this “unprecedented event” created by the PM and the grid will most probably survive this plunge and surge assault. 

The question is: what was the need for this human-made crisis for the grid? Why does the government not spend time instead on how to provide and extend testing for Covid-19 infected? Procure and provide protective equipment to hospitals? Provide food and shelter for the poor? Does it not have more urgent things to do than focussing on grandstanding events that serve no purpose?