http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120802/jsp/nation/story_15803823.jsp#.UBqUFaBmm9s

Blackout glare on pressure from rogues Moily to meet 'power' CMs

R. SURYAMURTHY

New Delhi, Aug. 1: The power cuts on Blackout Tuesday that sprang from the domino-like collapse of three of the five power grids in the country have focused attention on one grim truth: the people who man the regional load despatch centres are harangued by top officials in the states to flout grid discipline and draw excess power. "Those manning the load despatch centres at the state level wilt under pressure from the top. They do not function independently and are under constant pressure to ensure that the state gets adequate power. If everyone turns into a rogue, grid discipline goes haywire," R. Krishnamoorthy, former member of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), told The Telegraph today. Former CERC chairman A.K. Basu agrees. "States should adhere to the grid code. If power is overdrawn at low frequency, the grid is bound to collapse." It is this insidious state of affairs that the new Union power minister Veerappa Moily will have to grapple with before blame for the latest power outage can be apportioned after what promises to be a fairly long-drawn forensic audit of the logs that the load despatch centres maintain. Moily has already taken the first stab at trying to bring about a modicum of discipline by convening a meeting on Monday of the chief ministers of the eight affected states and Union territories where 600 million people bore the brunt of the world's worst power outage. Power secretary P. Umashankar has called a meeting on the same day of the chief secretaries and principal secretaries of the affected states and Union territories. These include Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Jammu and Kashmir. "We don't want to get into a blame game. The way to resolve problems and conflicts is though mutual cordiality, collaboration, consultation and co-operation. Constant consultation is the only way out," Moily added. The tenor of Moily's message indicates that the Centre doesn't intend to crack down on the renegade states that are run by people who are part of the rainbow coalition at the Centre. Moily, however, assured the nation that the grid collapse on such a mammoth scale would never happen again. "I want to reassure the nation that it (the power grid collapse) will never be replayed again in the national scene," Moily added. The reassurance packs in more hope than conviction. Blame is also being pinned on the delayed and deficient monsoon that forced states like Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to draw excess power to aid the late sowing by farmers in these states. The monsoon deficiency has been 22 per cent across the country but higher in the northern regions. With no sign of rains in the dry dust bowls of northern India, Moily's promise may be a little too hasty to make considering that the department of agriculture put out a note a week ago indicating that the sowing of rice — which needs a lot of water — is 16.7 per cent lower than that last year. Rainfall has been poor in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the note said, where 95 per cent of the acreage is irrigated. If the states argue that they were drawing excess power to help farmers power their irrigation devices, the Centre will find it hard to take a tough line against the renegades in the system. That could explain Moily's conciliatory overtures to the states. Basu said that after a terrible grid collapse a decade ago, it had been suggested that vital services and regions ought to be "islanded" or ring-fenced against the crippling effects of a power outage. The other proposals were to slap a heavy penalty on those violating the grid code and the adoption of a system where the government compensates upfront the distribution companies for the losses they suffer because of rampant indiscipline that leads to the collapse of the grid itself. Experts have said the Rs 1 lakh fine stipulated in the Electricity Act 2003 for the failure to adhere to grid discipline after a CERC hearing does not deter the state from overdrawing power and crippling the system. The "islanding" proposal has hoved back into reckoning after the latest grid collapse. The power ministry is weighing the possibility of islanding critical infrastructure such as railways, airports, metro services and water supply. Even if the grid goes down, it hopes to ensure power supply to keep these essential utilities up and running. Other preventive measures being considered are the levy of grid congestion charges and identifying the fault lines on the transmission routes.