The document discusses reasons for frequent failures of electricity grids in India. It provides background on the structure and operations of India's power system, which is divided into five regions overseen by various load dispatch centers. Demand for electricity has grown significantly at around 7% annually, but supply additions have failed to keep pace due to bottlenecks. As a result, deficits have increased, with insufficient generation capacity to meet rising demand. Grid failures occur when the balance between power generation and consumption is disrupted, which can be triggered by equipment issues, unreliable demand forecasting, or states drawing excessive power. The 2012 northern grid failure highlighted impacts such as stranded trains and miners, as well as losses for industry.

1. WHY ARE THE
GRIDS FAILING
TIME AND
AGAIN?

2. Electric grid

The power generating stations are hooked onto an
interconnected network of transmission lines and
substations.

These generating stations supply electricity through
these transmission lines.

The companies responsible for distribution take the
power coming through these lines and forward it to
the consumers.

3. Power market operations – divided
into five regions
 The Indian power system is divided into five regions
 National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC)


Western
Southern
NorthEastern
Eastern
Scheduling and despatch of electricity over interregional links

Coordination with RLDCs for the energy
accounting of inter-regional exchange of power

Northern
Supervision over the RLDCs
Co-ordination for trans-national exchange of
Powers
 Regional Load Dispatch Centre (RLDC)
 Schedule day ahead by matching supply to
demand from states
 State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC)
 Serve as control areas balancing supply-demand
within the state in real time
 Wholesale market effectively operates at the state level

4. Power market – operational framework
National Load
Dispatch Centre
Inter-Regional
Network
Regional
Load
Dispatch
Centers
State Load
Dispatch
Centers
Eastern
North Eastern
Northern
Western
Central Sector Generation Units
States
State Generation
Units
Southern
Regional
Network
Power Traders
State
Network
State Utilities /Independent power producers / Captive

5. Current day to day information flow
and dispatch mechanism
■
■
■
■
Inter-state open access
Customers (Power
Exchange/ Bilateral
Contracts)
Availability information
Drawl schedules
Drawl requirements
Import/export to other regions
■
■
Currently State
Electricity Boards
(SEBs) operate as
SLDCs
SLDC 1
SLDC compares load requirement with
own generation and comes up with
drawl requirement from central plants
■
RLDC compares all drawl
requirements with available generation,
and determines drawl schedule for all
SLDCs
■
Central
Generating
Stations (CGS)
State generation units give their
availability to SLDCs one day in
advance
■
RLDC
CGS provide RLDC their availability
one day in advance
SLDCs/SEBs plan load shedding etc.,
plants dispatched on merit order basis
(purely variable cost)
SLDC 2
Load curves
Load curves
State
Generation
Stations
Independent Power
Producers
State
Generation
Stations
In case forced outages all drawl schedules gets reduced
on pro-rate basis.

6. Demand: High electricity demand with average
growth rate of ~7% over last five years
9%
700
8%
7%
600
6%
500
5%
400
4%
300
3%
200
2%
100
1%
0
0%
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
Energy Demand (TWh)
2007-08
Growth Rate (%)
2008-09
Demand Growth (%)
10%
800
Electricity Demand (TWh)
900

7. Demand growth expected to remain high



Electricity demand has grown annually on an average by
~ 7% over the last five years
Demand growth has been robust across the regions and
the largest states have posted the biggest increase
Key drivers of electricity demand growth





GDP growth and rising income
Improved electricity access
Rural electrification
Demand growth is expected to remain at 7-9% annually
for the next decade
Limited risk to decline in electricity demand growth
because of significant existing latent demand

8. Supply: Consistent failure to add enough new
capacity through last 3 five year plans – major cause
of increasing deficits
90,000
80,000
70,000
Nuclear
50,000
Thermal
40,000
Hydro
30,000
20,000
52%
47%
54%
10,000
8th Plan (1992-1997)
Acheivement*
Target
Acheivement
Target
Acheivement
Target
Acheivement
0
Target
MW
60,000
9th Plan (1997-2002) 10th Plan (2002-2007) 11th Plan (2007-2012)
Source: CEA

9. Growing demand + constrained supply =
persistent shortages
2011-12
2011-12
Energy Requirement
350
Energy Availability
Peak Met
40
300
35
250
30
200
25
GW
Billion kwh
Peak Demand
45
150
20
15
100
10
50
5
0
0
Northern
Western
Southern
Eastern
Northern
North-East
Western
All India
18.00%
16.00%
Energy Deficit
Peak Deficit
14.00%
12.00%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
Southern
Eastern
North-East

10. Whole host of factors for increasing
deficits
 Capacity additions bottlenecks
• Equipment supply of Main Plant and
Balance of Plant
• Project Finance
• Statuary Clearances/Approvals
• Land acquisition
• Skilled Manpower
• Natural calamities in case of Hydro
Projects
 Fuel supply constraints
• CIL failing to meet its production
targets
• Delay in captive block developments
• Limited gas availability
• Shortage of Nuclear fuel
• Erratic hydro generation
 Infrastructure constraints
• Old inefficient technology use
• High Technical and Commercial
Losses
• Inadequate gas pipeline
infrastructure
• Inadequate coal handling
infrastructure (washeries / ports /
railways)
 Market structure
•
•
•
•
•
Poor financial health of SEBs
Political interference
Market in transition phase
Lack of competition
Lack of Private Participation

11. A stable electric grid





The stability of the grids depends on a delicate
equilibrium of demand-supply, as per the drawal
schedule
The amount of load is directly proportional to the amount
of power generated
According to the Indian Electricity Code, 49.5 Hz to 50.2
Hz is the permissible band for grid operations in India
When the equilibrium between power generated and
consumed gets disturbed and the load becomes more, it
leads to tripping of the line
It is the duty of the power distributors to maintain the
equilibrium intact so as not to trigger a grid failure

12. Reasons of a grid collapse



Grids collapse due to two basic reasons:
 One is the failure of the equipment, like it happened a decade ago in
2002 when the northern grid collapsed
 The second trigger is power suppliers drawing excessive power from the
grid which results in the balance of power generation and supply goes
haywire with a cascading effect
There are various reasons why an excessive withdrawal of power happens:
 Weather phenomenon and change in sudden climate is one reason
 Unreliable demand forecasting, etc.
Northern states of India, like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu
Kashmir, have been found to be habitual violators
 Presence of heavy industries and fast growing cities has necessitated the
need for more power. But the production has not been able to cope up
with the required distribution.

13. Northern Grid Fails (30th July 2012)

14. Northern-Eastern Grid Fails (31
st
July 2012
)

15. Results of power grid failure






The power failure affected all major services, like rail, water
and emergency services at hospitals all across the states
Thousands of train passengers were stranded at railway
stations all across the country. More than 300 trains came to a
standstill
Water services too were affected across the states and supply
was low all across the cities
Around 200 miners got trapped in the mines in West Bengal
The Railways network was the worst hit services, as trains,
other than those running on diesel engine, stopped midway.
Industry suffered heavy losses.

16. Thank you