NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Power, which has thrown the kitchen sink at mitigating the possibility of a power grid failure due to the Prime Minister’s nine-minute blackout call on Sunday, said on Saturday that the electricity grid is robust enough to withstand load reduction and adequate measures are in place to handle any fluctuations in demand.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Friday urged people to switch off lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday to “feel the collective battle that we are all fighting” in defeating the Covid-19 pandemic. “There is no call to switch off street lights or appliances like TVs, ACs or refrigerators in homes.
Adequate arrangements and protocols are in place to handle the variation in demand. People should be assured not to worry and continue running all the appliances as usual,” the power ministry said in a letter to the state governments. Instructions have been issued to state and regional load dispatch centers, and the procedures to ensure there is no imbalance on power grids during the period have been worked out, it added. “The apprehensions are misplaced,” the ministry said, allaying concerns that the blackout may impact the electricity grid due sudden drop in peak power demand.