Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to turn off lights in people’s homes at 9 pm on April 5 as a symbolic stance to fight the coronavirus, Uttar Pradesh is planning to resort to load sheddings on that evening.
According to a letter sent by Uttar Pradesh State Load Despatch Centre, to avoid sharp crashing of load due to everyone switching off lights the grid operator has proposed that ‘load shedding in a staggered manner may be done staring from approximately 8-9 pm in Uttar Pradesh Power control area”.
The state anticipates about 3,000 MW load reduction due to the activity, which may cause ‘high voltage surge in the UP power grid’. The state is planning to inform all generators that it received power from to moderate their capacities according to the need. Even the hydropower stations, with ‘must run’ status, will be asked to reduce their generation as per requirement.
