'9 baje 9 minutes': With a drop of 32000 MW, how power grid coped during Sunday night's 'lights out'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier appealed to all Indians to switch off the lights at their residences tonight at 9 PM for nine minutes, and to just light a candle, 'Diya', or their cellphone's flashlight, to mark the nation's fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, that is spreading across the country like wildfire.
R K Singh , ANI
Union power minister (Independent Charge) R K Singh congratulated all the power grid operators for doing “a great job” during the 9-minute lights out at 9 PM on Sunday night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier appealed to all Indians to switch off the lights at their residences tonight at 9 PM for nine minutes, and to just light a candle, 'Diya', or their cellphone's flashlight, to mark the nation's fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, that is spreading across the country like wildfire.
“National grid operator POSOCO and the national, regional and state load despatch centres did a great job with support from all generators; NHPC, NEEPCO, THDC, SJVNL, BBMB, NTPC, all state gencos and IPPs, Transcos and Distribution companies and their officers and staff,” Singh was quoted as saying by ANI.
The purpose of this exercise, Modi said, is to bolster confidence in the heart of the citizens with a realisation of the fact that no one is alone in this crisis, they are in this with 130-crore other Indians who are collectively battling this crisis.
"The demand went down from 117300 Megawatts at 2049 hrs to 85300 Megawatts till 2109 hrs; that is a reduction of 32000 Megawatts. Then it started increasing. Frequency was maintained within a band of 49.7 to 50. 26 Hz, which means the voltage was kept stable," he further added.
People from across the country shared the preparation for tonight's act of solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 on social media, appealing to each other to come forward and boost the morale of the nation and essential service providers amid the lockdown.
Tamil Nadu: Residents of a society in Chennai Central have turned off lights of their houses, following the call by PM Modi to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes&just light a candle, 'diya' or mobile's flashlight, to mark the fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/c1O7oU0ewf
— ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020
Residents in housing societies across the country turned off lights at their residences and lit up candles and diyas following the call of Prime Minister Modi.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 3940 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases in the country and 95 fatalities have been reported.