IEEFA India: The fine art of grid management

April 15, 2020 (New Delhi) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on citizens to switch off their lights at 9 pm for nine minutes on April 5 to express their solidarity with India’s healthcare and emergency services workers amid the national coronavirus lockdown.

How India’s electricity grid stood up to such a test demonstrated not only grid resilience, but also the high competence of the system operators who managed the symbolic switch-off without a hitch, writes IEEFA’s Vibhuti Garg.

“In the face of great apprehension, how the system operators managed grid voltage and frequency is a work of art, thanks to good planning and preparation. They deserve a pat on the back,” Garg writes in her briefing note “India’s power system operators demonstrate the fine art of grid management.”

To prepare for the event, the Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) analysed load data, brought together stakeholders, and put in place protocols and contingency measures to prevent cascading outages that could have threatened the entire electricity grid.

“Although the April 5 management of highly variable demand was done without any market price signals, it established the fact that technically the grid can manage large variations,” said Garg.

“That is not to say, however, that such unprecedented power-supply events are necessary to prove the system’s robustness. Nowhere in the world has a power system operator had to manage 31 gigawatts of load variability in only nine minutes, twice back to back,”  according to Garg’s analysis.

“What India’s grid system operators achieved is comparable to winning a battle, but we should not send grid and system operators into combat again without further investing in more firming capacity complemented by a long-term bankable time-of-day price signal,” writes Garg.

Briefing note: India’s power system operators demonstrate the fine art of grid management

About IEEFA: The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) examines issues related to energy markets, trends and policies. The Institute’s mission is to accelerate the transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy.