Dark night descends
31 July 2012 1:33 PM IST
On Monday, north of India woke up to a massive power disruption. After almost 11 years – it last collapsed on 8 January 2001 – the Northern Grid gave up. Officials point towards a technical fault near Agra that plunged eight northern states into darkness, hitting rail and road transport for hours in the country's worst blackout in a decade that affected nearly 350 million people.
The power supply in Delhi could be restored in parts only around 1 pm on Monday. The grid failure brought trains to a grinding halt. Railway officials say almost 100 trains were stranded.
While the officials of Powergrid Corporation maintain that the exact reasons for the grid failure are being ascertained, the union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was quick to blame Uttar Pradesh for the crisis caused by overdrawing. 'Three committees have also been formed to probe the matter and within 15 days report will be with us regarding the outage,' said Shinde.
With sowing season in full swing, the governments of the agrarian states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana are often known to violate the permissible limits to provide uninterrupted power supply to the farmers during nights. Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited Chairman Avnish Awasthi, however, said, 'The exact cause of the failure is not yet known. But, it could be because of excess withdrawal of electricity by any one of these [northern] states.' The Delhi-based National Regional Load Dispatch Centre, which monitors the load, has issued several warnings to state transmission bodies and on Monday accused them of drawing excessive power leading to the crisis.
The power supply in Delhi could be restored in parts only around 1 pm on Monday. The grid failure brought trains to a grinding halt. Railway officials say almost 100 trains were stranded.
While the officials of Powergrid Corporation maintain that the exact reasons for the grid failure are being ascertained, the union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was quick to blame Uttar Pradesh for the crisis caused by overdrawing. 'Three committees have also been formed to probe the matter and within 15 days report will be with us regarding the outage,' said Shinde.
With sowing season in full swing, the governments of the agrarian states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana are often known to violate the permissible limits to provide uninterrupted power supply to the farmers during nights. Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited Chairman Avnish Awasthi, however, said, 'The exact cause of the failure is not yet known. But, it could be because of excess withdrawal of electricity by any one of these [northern] states.' The Delhi-based National Regional Load Dispatch Centre, which monitors the load, has issued several warnings to state transmission bodies and on Monday accused them of drawing excessive power leading to the crisis.
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