In a major initiative to ensure power supply to major cities in the event of disturbances in electric grids, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is implementing an islanding-of-grids scheme. If all goes well, it will be ready by August this year.The islanding scheme consist of three parts -- grid discipline, grid protocol and installation of hardware.
An electrical grid is an interconnected network to deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers. It consists of generating stations that produce electrical power, high-voltage transmission lines that carry power from distant sources to demand centres and distribution lines that connect individual customers.
KSEB chairman M Sivasankaran said the board is progressing fast to realise the ‘islanding-of-grids scheme. “If the scheme is well in place, collapse in grid will not affect the power supply. Not only that, by March next year when the southern states will be connected to the national grid, the new scheme will prove to be more beneficial for the customers,” he said.
Following the massive collapse of the Northern grid that affected more than half of the national population last year, the Central Electricity Authority has decided to implement the islanding scheme to isolate power installations from the main grid when fluctuations occur and to prevent a total collapse.According to the action taken report on the implementation of the Grid Disturbance Enquiry Committee (GDEC) recommendation, the planning body for the power sector, the four southern states -- Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala -- would have islanding scheme by August.