BHUBANESWAR: Rajya Sabha member from Odisha Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday debunked the opposition’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for diya lighting and switching off lights at 9 pm for nine minutes on Sunday to show national solidarity against coronavirus pandemic will destabilise national grid and create disruption in power supply. Vaishnaw said the PM has requested citizens only to switch off the lights at home during the time. “All other electrical appliances such as TV, fan and refrigerator will continue to run. Besides, street lights and lights of other essential services will continue to be on.
Therefore, against the expected power demand of 115 to 125 GW (gigawatt), the light-out will only shed 10 to 15 GW demand and our grids have robust design to bear this fluctuation,” Vaishnaw said. He said 20 to 25 per cent cushion is always built into any engineering design of grids.
