Grid disturbance in India on 30th July 2012.

On 30th and 31st July 2012 there was a grid disturbance in India. This disturbance affected Indian
electricity grid. Northern part of India was drawing large quantum of power during this time
period. It started drawing more than the stipulated power leading to congestion in power
transmission lines. The western part was withdrawing lesser power leading to change in load
generation balance. This lead to grid disturbances on these days. This affected large part of India.
[paper]. An analysis is made by the government to find out the reasons for the collapse of the
grid. It is observed that one of the important reasons for the issue is transmission line connecting
Gwalior and Agra got tripped due to overloading. The another important reason is inadequate
response provided by State Load Dispatch Centers (SLDCs) for the instructions that are provided
by the to the instructions given by the Regional Load Dispatch Centres (RLDCs) to overcome
the issues created due to large drawal of power by the Northern Region and lesser withdrawal by
the Western region. This situation led to transmission line congestion leading to tripping of Bina
Gwalior-Agra link leading to its outage. This caused successive tripping of many transmission
lines leading to blackout in at least 25% population of the country.
The severity of this incident led to an important conclusion there is a need for coordinated action
during the time of distress such that congestion can be managed. In the power system network.

Grid Disturbance in India on 31th July 2012

1.2 Grid Disturbance on 31st July 2012
Another disturbance that occurred at 1300 hours of 31st July 2012 affected the Northern,
Eastern and North-Eastern electricity grids. The frequency before the incident was 49.84 Hz.
The All India Demand Met just prior to the incident was about 100,500 MW and the demand
being met in the NEW Grid was 73000 MW approximately.
Approximately 48000MW of consumer load across 21 States and 1 Union Territory was
affected by the grid disturbance. The areas which survived included Western Region,
generating units at Narora Atomic Power Station, Anta GPS, Dadri GPS and Faridabad GPS
as well as part of Delhi system in NR and system comprising of Sterlite/IB TPS, Bokaro Steel
and CESC Kolkata systems in ER.
Immediate steps were initiated for restoration of the areas affected in the incident. Start up
supply was extended from the Western Region and the Southern Region which were intact.
Several hydro units in the Northern Region, Eastern Region and North-Eastern Region were
self started. Supply was extended to emergency loads such as Railways, Metro, Mines and
Airports, etc. All emergency loads such as Railways, Metros and airport were provided with
power supply mostly by about 1530 hours approximately. The system was restored fully by
about 2130 hrs of 31st July 2012.