Anniversary of One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency

Context:

As part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, POWERGRIID is commemorating landmark achievement of completion of One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency.

Relevance:

Prelims, GS-III: Industry and Infrastructure

Dimensions of the Article:

1. More about India’s Power grid
2. About maintaining one frequency (One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency)

More about India’s Power grid

• The Indian Power system for planning and operational purposes is divided into five regional grids and this national grid management on a regional basis started in the sixties.
• Initially, State grids were interconnected to form a regional grid and India was demarcated into 5 regions namely Northern, Eastern, Western, North Eastern and Southern region. – The integration of regional grids, and thereby establishment of National Grid, was conceptualised in the early nineties.
• Presently, the country has a total inter-regional transmission capacity of about 1,12,250 MW which is expected to be enhanced to about 1,18,740 MW by 2022.
• The state-run Power System Operation Corp Ltd (Posoco) oversees the country’s critical electricity load management functions through the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) and a set of regional load dispatch centres (RLDCs) and state load despatch centres (SLDCs).

About maintaining one frequency (One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency)

• ‘One Nation, One Grid, One Frequency’ was achieved in 2013 when the southern Region was connected to the Central Grid and hence, all 5 regional grids are synchronously connected forming a central grid operating at one frequency –
  1. North Eastern and Eastern grids (Connected in 1991)
  2. Western region grid (Connected in 2003)
  3. North Grid (Connected in 2006)
  4. East Grid (Connected in 2006)
  5. South Grid (Connected in 2013)
• All possible measures are taken to ensure that the grid frequency always remains within the 49.90-50.05 Hz (hertz) band.
• Maintaining a consistent electrical frequency is important because multiple frequencies cannot operate alongside each other without damaging equipment. This has serious implications when providing electricity at a national scale.
• Synchronisation of all regional grids helped in optimal utilization of scarce natural resources by transfer of Power from Resource centric regions to Load centric regions.
• Further, this paved the way for establishment of a vibrant Electricity market facilitating trading of power across regions.

-Source: PIB