India answers PM’s call: Lights go out, candles lit
NEW DELHI: People in several parts of the country switched off lights at their homes and lit candles and diyas – some even burst firecrackers -- on Sunday night, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to show the nation’s “collective resolve and solidarity” in efforts to fight the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
This was the second time in a fortnight when people responded to Modi’s appeals for a show of unity, which the Prime Minister has said is crucial in times of such crisis. Normal life has been interrupted since March 25, when the country was put under a three-week lockdown to interrupt the spread of the disease that has claimed over 65,000 lives across the world. Modi, as well as the President, Vice President and several Union ministers, took part in the 9pm event at their homes. Union power minister RK Singh cited electricity consumption data and said the response was “huge”.
Power consumption fell by nearly 28%, according to figures given by Singh in a tweet.
Officials aware of the development said power generation was lowered to keep electricity frequency in check, a measure that helped in keeping the grid from failing.
NEW DELHI: The Centre said on Sunday that the national response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to switch off lights for nine minutes at 9pm was huge and power demand dropped by 32 GW, more than double of what officials had anticipated.
The Union power ministry said the sharp dip in demand was handled well by engineers deployed across the country. The ramping up of demand and supply went back to 110 GW “smoothly”, the ministry said. Concerns had been expressed that a dramatic drop in supply followed by a quick surge may trip or damage the power grid.
“Huge response to Hon’ble Prime Minister’s call to switch off lights and light a lamp as a show of national solidarity in the fight against. The demand went down from 117300 Megawatts at 2049 hrs to 85300 Megawatts till 2109 hrs; that is a reduction of 32000 Megawatts,” power minister RK Singh said. Officials aware of the development said power generation was lowered to keep the grid frequency in check and directions were issued to avoid load shedding. “Generation will be kept slightly lower than load so that when load is thrown off at 9pm, the frequency would not be on the higher side,” a senior government official said.
According to national load dispatcher POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation), the total domestic lighting load reduction had been pegged at 12-13 GW.
Singh and senior officials from the power ministry were monitoring the health of the grid from the National Power Monitoring Centre in Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi.
In a clarification issued earlier in the day, the ministry had said the PM’s directive – aimed at building solidarity against Covid-19 and encouraging frontline workers and the poor -- was only to switch off domestic home lights between 9.00pm and 9.09pm.
“Indian Electricity Grid is well designed to handle such kind of load variation with several inbuilt levels of control and safety mechanisms to absorb any kind of frequency changes. all adequate arrangements and standard operating protocols are in place to maintain grid stability. all States/UTs/ Local bodies have been advised to keep the street lights on for public safety,” the ministry said.