BLACKOUT 30-31st july 2012

BLACKOUT 30th JULY INDIA

BLACKOUT 30TH JULY:

BLACKOUT 30 & 31 July 2012 The July 2012 India blackout is a power outage that occurred on 30 July 2012 in northern India, affecting 14 states, followed by another power outage on 31 July affecting 20 states. It was the largest blackout in history, affecting over 600 million people and almost 9% of the world's population, about half of India's population. As of the evening of 31 July 2012, electrical power had been restored to most of northern India, including the country's capital city of New Delhi, and to about half of eastern India.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS:
At 02:35 IST (21:05 UTC on 29 July), a line feeding into the AgraBareilly transmission section (the 400 kV Bina-Gwalior line) tripped, triggering the collapse. All major electrical plants were shut down in the affected states, causing an estimated shortage of 32 GW. Officials described the failure as "the worst in a decade". On the day of the collapse, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde stated that the exact cause of the failure was unknown, but that at the time of the failure, electricity use was "above normal". He speculated that some states had attempted to draw more power than permitted due to the higher consumption. Spokesperson for Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) and theNorthern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) stated that Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryanawere the states responsible for the overdraw. PGCIL's chairman also stated that electrical service was restored "at a record time". A senior director for an Indian power company described the outage as "a fairly large breakdown that exposed major technical faults in Indias grid system. Something went terribly wrong which caused the backup safety systems to fail." More than 300 million people, about 25% of India's population, were without power. Railways and some airports were shut down until 08:00.New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport was able to remain open, however, as it switched to back-up power. The outage caused "chaos" for Monday morning rush hour, as passenger trains were shut down and traffic signals were non-operational. Trains stalled for three to five hours. Several hospitals reported interruptions in health services, while others relied on back-up generators. Water treatment plants were shut down for several hours, and millions were unable to draw water from wells powered by electric pumps. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India stated that the

blackout had "severely impacted" businesses, leaving many unable to operate. Oil refineries were able to continue operating, however, as they maintained independent power supplies. It took 15 hours to restore 80% of service

What are grids???

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) is an Indian state-owned electric utilities company headquartered in Gurgaon, India. Power Grid wheels about 50% of the total power generated in India on its transmission network. Power Grid has a pan-India presence with around 95,009 Circuit-km of Transmission network and 155 EHVAC & HVDC sub-stations with a total transformation capacity of 136,358 MVA. The Inter-regional capacity is enhanced to 28,000 MW. Power Grid has also diversified into Telecom business and established a telecom network of more than 25,000 km across the country. Power Grid has consistently maintained the transmission system availability over 99.00% which is at par with the International Utilities. In 1980 the Rajadhyaksha Committee on Power Sector Reforms submitted its report to the Government of India suggesting extensive reforms in the Indian power sector. Based on the recommendations of the Rajadhyaksha Committee, in 1981 the Government of India took the policy decision to form a national power grid which would pave the way for the integrated operation of the central and regional transmission systems. Pursuant to this decision to form a national power grid, Power Grid was incorporated on October 23, 1989 under the companies Act, 1956 as the National Power Transmission Corporation Limited, with the responsibility of planning, executing, owning, operating and maintaining the high voltage transmission systems in the country. The Company received a certificate for commencement of business on November 8, 1990. Subsequently, the name of the Company was changed to Power Grid Corporation of India Limited with effect from October 23, 1992. POWERGRID has enhanced the inter-regional capacity of National Grid to 28,000 MW.India is divided into 5 Regions - Northern Region(NR), Eastern Region(ER), Western Region(WR), Southern Region(SR) and North-East Region(NER). Out of all these Regions the NR, ER, WR and NER are synchronized which is known as NEW Grid. Whereas SR is not synchronized with the rest of the regions with AC lines and hence runs on a slightly different Frequency. SR is connected with WR and ER with HVDC links only. When PGCIL was formed then the responsibility of Regional Load Dispatch Centers (RLDCs) was handed over to POWERGRID by Central Electricity Authority (CEA). On 25th February, 2009 the National Load Dispatch Center (NLDC) was inaugurated. Now these Regional Load Dispatch Centers (RLDCs) and National Load Dispatch Center (NLDC) is a separate Organization named POSOCO (Power system Operation Corporation), a wholly

owned subsidiary of POWERGRID.

Reason for failure of grid:

Power transmitted through transmission lines must have a fixed frequency range. In India instruments and electrical appliances are designed for 50 Hz frequency supply. The permissible range of frequency is 503% Hz. As we are well familiar that speed of turbo generators at power stations is directly related with frequency of the emf generated and is given by: f =PNs/120 Generally at 500MW units the permissible rotation per minute is 3000600rpm. When demand is more than production the frequency is lesser than 50 Hz. As demand keeps increasing the frequency dips down the permissible range thus affecting the speed of rotation of rotor in turbo generator. Speed sensors are installed which trips the generator in case of rpm less than permissible range. The function of grid is to maintain the permissible range of frequency by ordered distribution of electricity generated at power stations.

Power plants in north India:

UTTAR PRADESH:
NARORA ATOMIC POWER PLANT, OBRA, ANPARA THERMAL POWER STATION, PANKI, UNCHAHAR, DADRI, TANDA, ROJA THERMAL POWER STATION & ORAIYA POWER STATION.

BIHAR:
BARAUNI, KAHALGAON, KANTI.

JHARKHAND:
PATRATU, TENUGHAT, BOKARO, CHANDRAPURA, JOJAVERA.

DELHI:
RAJGHAT, BADARPUR, INDRAPRASTHA, PRAGATI & PRAGATI-3 CONSUMPTION OF ELECRICITY IN INDIA: 1st Quarter-industries. 2nd Qtr-domestic uses 3rd Qtr-agriculture 4th Qtr- commercial purpose

5th Qtr-railway 6th Qtr-other uses. Electricity production in India- 2.05 lakh megawatt, Demand- 2.70 lakh megawatt