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Inquiry ordered into Delhi power failure

Union Power Minister Suresh Prabhu emphasised that the governmental inquiry into Tuesday's protracted power failure in Delhi and elsewhere in the north would fix responsibility and punitive action would be taken against those responsible.

"The inquiry by the Central Electricity Authority into the power failure will try and find a long-term solution to such mishaps. We will look into the causes of the failure and ensure that there is no repetition and also how such mishaps can be resolved in the shortest possible time," Prabhu told a crowded press conference in New Delhi.

He pointed out that failure was due to a "bus fault" in the 400 kv Panki sub-station of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited at 0310 hours following which a number of important 400 kv lines "went out of operation."

Prabhu said the failure created a "very critical situation" due to overloading of the transmission system. Despite our best efforts to control the contingency, all other transmission lines carrying power from the major power plants in eastern Uttar Pradesh to the western part of the regional grid tripped at 0445 hours. This led to a "total collapse of the whole northern grid with a loss of about 15500 mw," the minister pointed out.

Prabhu claimed that immediate measures were taken to restore power supply. While his ministry's efforts had restored about " 60-70 per cent of the supply," it would be complete by 2200 hours Tuesday and by Wednesday things would be restored to complete normalcy.

The minister, however, declined to rule out sabotage and that he would wait for the CEA inquiry report.

He said initially, standby BBMB hydro stations were started up and power was also drawn from the western region through Vindayachal for activating emergency start-up supplies to important power stations.

But he admitted that "mismatch of power generation and its draw" could lead to further power failure, as happened on Tuesday.

Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajsathan, Punjab, Haryana are some of the states which draw power from the northern grid which supplies 19000 mw of power.

Prabhu maintained that the whole country had been suffering from power shortages and that the eastern grid had suffered a similar failure last year.

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