New Delhi, Jul 31: The country faced a major power crisis for the second consecutive day today as three grids serving Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern regions failed this afternoon, leading to 200 coal miners getting trapped in West Bengal and throwing normal life out of gear in 22 states.
As the grids collapsed around 1 PM, miners in Eastern Coalfields got trapped in Sodepur and Satgram in Burdwan districts of West Bengal, according to officials who said rescue efforts are on.
In Delhi, Metro commuters were trapped inside the tunnels for sometime as trains came to a halt as electricity supplies got snapped.
The Centre blamed overdrawal by states in the Eastern region for today's grid collapse. Power Grid Corp promised normalcy would be restored by 7 PM.
The states affected included Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha, Bihar, Rajasthan and Assam and Union Territory of Chandigarh, covering more than half of the population.
In Kolkata, Metro Rail services were unaffected, according to state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The state government declared holiday in its offices after 3 PM.
The Railways network across major parts of the country was among the worst hit services, as trains, other than those running on diesel engine, stopped midway.
Assam witnessed large-scale power cuts throughout the state. In Orissa also, train services were hit.
The Northern Grid, which collapsed yesterday and was restored after 15 hours, again tripped today.
The Eastern and North-Eastern transmission lines too failed this afternoon, worsening the power situation in the country when it is facing drought-like situation in most parts.
“Some sections are creating problems by overdrawing power,” Power Grid CMD R N Nayak said.
This is probably the first time that three grids have collapsed simultaneously, While the northern grid failed for the second straight day, the eastern and north-eastern grids too collapsed. These three grids carry about 50,000 MW of electricity.
The collapse has left more than half of the country powerless. Essential services and public transport systems, including Railways and the Delhi Metro were also hit.
“Grid incident occurred at 1300 hrs affecting the northern grid, eastern grid and north-eastern grid—System Under Restoration,” National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), under the Power Ministry, said in an update.
About 22 states and union territories have been impacted by the failure of the three grids.
The northern grid covers nine regions—Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh.
At least six states are covered by the eastern grid. They are West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Sikkim.
Meanwhile, the north eastern grid connects Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
India has five electricity grids—Northern, Eastern, North Eastern, Southern and Western. All of them are inter-connected, except the Southern grid.
All the grids are being run by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation, which operates more than 95,000 circuit km of transmission lines.
One circuit km refers to one kilometre of electrical transmission line.
Over 300 trains came to a grinding halt at various places this afternoon due to failure of both the Northern and the Eastern grids covering close to 10 states, with movement on the busy Delhi-Howrah route almost paralysed.
According to Railways, services in six railway zones such as the Northern Railway, North Central Railway, West Central Railway, East Central Railway, Eastern and South Eastern Railway have been badly hit.
As per initial reports, the affected trains include scores of long distance trains, Rajdhani and Shatabdi expresses, as well as suburban trains, causing inconvenience to passengers.
Train services also came to a halt in Asansol, Sealdah, and Howrah divisions in West Bengal after failure of the Eastern grid.
The disruption comes barely within 24 hours of the collapse of Northern Grid which led to large-scale disruption of long distance trains, forcing railways to reschedule timings.
“Services from the earlier power failure had barely been restored when the Railways have once again been hit by another power failure,” a Railway spokesperson said.
However, he said Railways is arranging power from other available sources to run the stranded trains. He said they have started getting power from Haryana to restore services.
Divisional Railway Managers and other technical staff of the various rail divisions have rushed to the control room to aid train operations.
New Delhi: Entire Delhi went without power for the second successive day today as the Northern Grid tripped again, crippling various essential services such as Metro rail, trains and water distribution system in the city.
Top Delhi Government officials said the situation became complex compared to yesterday with tripping of the Eastern Grid also and it may take a couple of hours to restore supply to the essential services.
The officials said the Northern Grid failed at around 1:30 PM when the national capital had a demand of around 4,300 MW. Only 38 MW was being supplied at around 1:45.
A Power department official said various power generation plants running on hydel, coal and gas had to shut operations due to the tripping of the grid.
Metro operations came to a standstill following the collapse of the grid but operations at the Delhi airport remained unaffected.
“Due to the Northern Grid failure, all trains services have been suspended. Trains are being brought to the nearest station for evacuation,” a Metro station official said.
An airport spokesperson said all essential services were shifted to the diesel generating back-up system. Traffic signals went blank in the city leading to traffic chaos in the entire city.
Trains services and functioning of various hospitals have also been affected due to the outages.
The water distribution system was another casualty of the power cut as functioning of all major water treatment plants across the city came to a halt.
A Delhi Jal Board official said operations at six water treatment plants in the city have been seriously affected due to outages.
Delhi went without power for about eight hours yesterday following collapse of the Grid which affected almost all the essential services.
Officials said Power Minister Harun Yusuf is constantly monitoring the situation and officials are in touch with the Union Power Ministry and Power Grid Corporation, which maintains the Northern Grid.
Delhi government yesterday had accused Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab for overdrawing power from the Northern Grid saying it led to its collapse, and urged the Union Power Minister to direct the states to follow grid discipline.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Power Minister Harun Yusuf had met Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and requested him to direct the states to maintain discipline while drawing power from the Northern Grid.
The Northern Grid, which caters to power supply in nine states and Union Territories - Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh - had collapsed at 2.35 AM yesterday.
Traffic was thrown out of gear in the capital this afternoon when signals went blank following power failure across north India.
Huge traffic jams were reported from various parts of the capital, including Connaught Place, ITO, Ashoka Road, India Gate and Laxmi Nagar.
“Due to grid failure for the second time since yesterday, the city is without electricity in most of the areas. Traffic signals are not functioning due to power failure.
“We are trying to manage traffic with the help of police personnel. This slows down traffic,” Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said.
Commuters were put to hardship as bus services were hit due to traffic jams. Auto drivers also refused to take passengers because of the traffic chaos.
The capital's lifeline Delhi Metro came to a standstill yet again this afternoon after services were suspended for two hours due to collapse of the Northern Power Grid for second consecutive day, inconveniencing commuters.
As the power grid collapsed at around 1 PM, Delhi Metro trains stopped on tracks, some inside tunnels, due to non-supply of power and passengers stuck in the trains were evacuated immediately.
Nine trains stopped inside tunnels after power failure but they were brought to the near-by stations and all passengers were evacuated.
The services, which were suspended a little after 1 PM was restored at around 3 PM with minimum frequency after partial restoration of supply from the Northern Grid.
As the grid failed, Delhi Metro officials closed down all stations and evacuated passengers from the premises with help from CISF personnel, who guard the installations.
Public announcements were made at stations about the power failure and suspension of services. People who were stuck inside the trains narrated their tale of woe after they were brought to stations and evacuated.
“Partial services restored on all lines with a frequency of ten minutes to begin with from 1450 hours,” a Delhi Metro spokesman said.
Yesterday, Metro services began an hour late and services were affected for hours due to failure of the Northern Grid. Passengers today alleged that trains stopped on tracks and they were not aware of the power failure.
Chandigarh : Power supply was hit again in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh due to collapse of the northern grid, affecting water supply and running of trains.
Although efforts are on to restore normalcy, power officials say it may take at least 3-4 hours to bring power plants back into generation.
“We still don't know what triggered the grid's failure. It will still take 3-4 hours to restore the situation,” said K D Chaudhary, CMD of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited.
He said power supply has been restored in few areas and efforts are on to revive electricity in other parts of the state also.
As many as seven northern states had witnessed an almost 15-hour long power crisis after the northern grid collapsed at around 2:30 AM early yesterday.
Meanwhile, Haryana Power Secretary Ajit Mohan Sharan said power supply has been disrupted in the entire state and efforts are on to restore supply.
The grid failure has hit almost over 8000 MW of power supply in Punjab and 6500 MW in Haryana.
Power utilities had yesterday claimed that supply would be fully restored by night following failure of the grid at 2:30 AM, but there were several areas in both the states which continued to remain without power.
Both Punjab and Haryana had earlier refused to accept the blame of yesterday's failure of the northern grid due to overdraw of power, as alleged by Delhi government.
Ranchi: The failure of North-Eastern grid has affected power units of Damodar Valley Corporation in Jharkhand with several parts of the state going without electricity.
“Several units ceased to work following the failure of North-Eastern Grid section,” DVC Chief Engineer (Chandrapura power unit) R Basuri said.
Mizia Thermal Power, Durgapur Thermal Power, Bokaro Thermal Power and Maithon Hydel Power in Jharkhand and neighbouring West Bengal are under the DVC, he said.
Guwahati : Power supply in Assam was affected today after the regional grid tripped due to heavy load following the collapse of Northern and Eastern grids.
“All of a sudden, there was heavy load and power frequency came down from the normal 49.9 per cent to 38.34 per cent leading to the collapse of the grid,” Assam State Load Despatch Centre (ASLDC) Executive Engineer Ashok Saikia told PTI.
The collapse led to large-scale power cuts throughout the state but the situation is likely to improve with additional power inputs from Samaguri, Kathalguri and Namrup Thermal Power Plants which has so far been unaffected by the grid failure, he said.
“We have already restored power in some areas of Guwahati and in the state by offloading power in certain areas,” Saikia added.
As the grids collapsed around 1 PM, miners in Eastern Coalfields got trapped in Sodepur and Satgram in Burdwan districts of West Bengal, according to officials who said rescue efforts are on.
In Delhi, Metro commuters were trapped inside the tunnels for sometime as trains came to a halt as electricity supplies got snapped.
The Centre blamed overdrawal by states in the Eastern region for today's grid collapse. Power Grid Corp promised normalcy would be restored by 7 PM.
The states affected included Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha, Bihar, Rajasthan and Assam and Union Territory of Chandigarh, covering more than half of the population.
In Kolkata, Metro Rail services were unaffected, according to state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The state government declared holiday in its offices after 3 PM.
The Railways network across major parts of the country was among the worst hit services, as trains, other than those running on diesel engine, stopped midway.
Assam witnessed large-scale power cuts throughout the state. In Orissa also, train services were hit.
The Northern Grid, which collapsed yesterday and was restored after 15 hours, again tripped today.
The Eastern and North-Eastern transmission lines too failed this afternoon, worsening the power situation in the country when it is facing drought-like situation in most parts.
“Some sections are creating problems by overdrawing power,” Power Grid CMD R N Nayak said.
This is probably the first time that three grids have collapsed simultaneously, While the northern grid failed for the second straight day, the eastern and north-eastern grids too collapsed. These three grids carry about 50,000 MW of electricity.
The collapse has left more than half of the country powerless. Essential services and public transport systems, including Railways and the Delhi Metro were also hit.
“Grid incident occurred at 1300 hrs affecting the northern grid, eastern grid and north-eastern grid—System Under Restoration,” National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), under the Power Ministry, said in an update.
About 22 states and union territories have been impacted by the failure of the three grids.
The northern grid covers nine regions—Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh.
At least six states are covered by the eastern grid. They are West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Sikkim.
Meanwhile, the north eastern grid connects Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
India has five electricity grids—Northern, Eastern, North Eastern, Southern and Western. All of them are inter-connected, except the Southern grid.
All the grids are being run by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation, which operates more than 95,000 circuit km of transmission lines.
One circuit km refers to one kilometre of electrical transmission line.
Over 300 trains came to a grinding halt at various places this afternoon due to failure of both the Northern and the Eastern grids covering close to 10 states, with movement on the busy Delhi-Howrah route almost paralysed.
According to Railways, services in six railway zones such as the Northern Railway, North Central Railway, West Central Railway, East Central Railway, Eastern and South Eastern Railway have been badly hit.
As per initial reports, the affected trains include scores of long distance trains, Rajdhani and Shatabdi expresses, as well as suburban trains, causing inconvenience to passengers.
Train services also came to a halt in Asansol, Sealdah, and Howrah divisions in West Bengal after failure of the Eastern grid.
The disruption comes barely within 24 hours of the collapse of Northern Grid which led to large-scale disruption of long distance trains, forcing railways to reschedule timings.
“Services from the earlier power failure had barely been restored when the Railways have once again been hit by another power failure,” a Railway spokesperson said.
However, he said Railways is arranging power from other available sources to run the stranded trains. He said they have started getting power from Haryana to restore services.
Divisional Railway Managers and other technical staff of the various rail divisions have rushed to the control room to aid train operations.
New Delhi: Entire Delhi went without power for the second successive day today as the Northern Grid tripped again, crippling various essential services such as Metro rail, trains and water distribution system in the city.
Top Delhi Government officials said the situation became complex compared to yesterday with tripping of the Eastern Grid also and it may take a couple of hours to restore supply to the essential services.
The officials said the Northern Grid failed at around 1:30 PM when the national capital had a demand of around 4,300 MW. Only 38 MW was being supplied at around 1:45.
A Power department official said various power generation plants running on hydel, coal and gas had to shut operations due to the tripping of the grid.
Metro operations came to a standstill following the collapse of the grid but operations at the Delhi airport remained unaffected.
“Due to the Northern Grid failure, all trains services have been suspended. Trains are being brought to the nearest station for evacuation,” a Metro station official said.
An airport spokesperson said all essential services were shifted to the diesel generating back-up system. Traffic signals went blank in the city leading to traffic chaos in the entire city.
Trains services and functioning of various hospitals have also been affected due to the outages.
The water distribution system was another casualty of the power cut as functioning of all major water treatment plants across the city came to a halt.
A Delhi Jal Board official said operations at six water treatment plants in the city have been seriously affected due to outages.
Delhi went without power for about eight hours yesterday following collapse of the Grid which affected almost all the essential services.
Officials said Power Minister Harun Yusuf is constantly monitoring the situation and officials are in touch with the Union Power Ministry and Power Grid Corporation, which maintains the Northern Grid.
Delhi government yesterday had accused Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab for overdrawing power from the Northern Grid saying it led to its collapse, and urged the Union Power Minister to direct the states to follow grid discipline.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Power Minister Harun Yusuf had met Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and requested him to direct the states to maintain discipline while drawing power from the Northern Grid.
The Northern Grid, which caters to power supply in nine states and Union Territories - Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh - had collapsed at 2.35 AM yesterday.
Traffic was thrown out of gear in the capital this afternoon when signals went blank following power failure across north India.
Huge traffic jams were reported from various parts of the capital, including Connaught Place, ITO, Ashoka Road, India Gate and Laxmi Nagar.
“Due to grid failure for the second time since yesterday, the city is without electricity in most of the areas. Traffic signals are not functioning due to power failure.
“We are trying to manage traffic with the help of police personnel. This slows down traffic,” Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said.
Commuters were put to hardship as bus services were hit due to traffic jams. Auto drivers also refused to take passengers because of the traffic chaos.
The capital's lifeline Delhi Metro came to a standstill yet again this afternoon after services were suspended for two hours due to collapse of the Northern Power Grid for second consecutive day, inconveniencing commuters.
As the power grid collapsed at around 1 PM, Delhi Metro trains stopped on tracks, some inside tunnels, due to non-supply of power and passengers stuck in the trains were evacuated immediately.
Nine trains stopped inside tunnels after power failure but they were brought to the near-by stations and all passengers were evacuated.
The services, which were suspended a little after 1 PM was restored at around 3 PM with minimum frequency after partial restoration of supply from the Northern Grid.
As the grid failed, Delhi Metro officials closed down all stations and evacuated passengers from the premises with help from CISF personnel, who guard the installations.
Public announcements were made at stations about the power failure and suspension of services. People who were stuck inside the trains narrated their tale of woe after they were brought to stations and evacuated.
“Partial services restored on all lines with a frequency of ten minutes to begin with from 1450 hours,” a Delhi Metro spokesman said.
Yesterday, Metro services began an hour late and services were affected for hours due to failure of the Northern Grid. Passengers today alleged that trains stopped on tracks and they were not aware of the power failure.
Chandigarh : Power supply was hit again in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh due to collapse of the northern grid, affecting water supply and running of trains.
Although efforts are on to restore normalcy, power officials say it may take at least 3-4 hours to bring power plants back into generation.
“We still don't know what triggered the grid's failure. It will still take 3-4 hours to restore the situation,” said K D Chaudhary, CMD of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited.
He said power supply has been restored in few areas and efforts are on to revive electricity in other parts of the state also.
As many as seven northern states had witnessed an almost 15-hour long power crisis after the northern grid collapsed at around 2:30 AM early yesterday.
Meanwhile, Haryana Power Secretary Ajit Mohan Sharan said power supply has been disrupted in the entire state and efforts are on to restore supply.
The grid failure has hit almost over 8000 MW of power supply in Punjab and 6500 MW in Haryana.
Power utilities had yesterday claimed that supply would be fully restored by night following failure of the grid at 2:30 AM, but there were several areas in both the states which continued to remain without power.
Both Punjab and Haryana had earlier refused to accept the blame of yesterday's failure of the northern grid due to overdraw of power, as alleged by Delhi government.
Ranchi: The failure of North-Eastern grid has affected power units of Damodar Valley Corporation in Jharkhand with several parts of the state going without electricity.
“Several units ceased to work following the failure of North-Eastern Grid section,” DVC Chief Engineer (Chandrapura power unit) R Basuri said.
Mizia Thermal Power, Durgapur Thermal Power, Bokaro Thermal Power and Maithon Hydel Power in Jharkhand and neighbouring West Bengal are under the DVC, he said.
Guwahati : Power supply in Assam was affected today after the regional grid tripped due to heavy load following the collapse of Northern and Eastern grids.
“All of a sudden, there was heavy load and power frequency came down from the normal 49.9 per cent to 38.34 per cent leading to the collapse of the grid,” Assam State Load Despatch Centre (ASLDC) Executive Engineer Ashok Saikia told PTI.
The collapse led to large-scale power cuts throughout the state but the situation is likely to improve with additional power inputs from Samaguri, Kathalguri and Namrup Thermal Power Plants which has so far been unaffected by the grid failure, he said.
“We have already restored power in some areas of Guwahati and in the state by offloading power in certain areas,” Saikia added.
