With half of India plunged into darkness on Tuesday, life had come to standstill after power grid failure hit northern and eastern parts of the nation in one if the worst blackouts of the decade.
On Monday, the Northern Grid, which was restored 15 hours since it collapsed, tripped again the following day. The Eastern and North-Eastern transmission lines also collapsed on Tuesday afternoon, affecting more than 600 million people and 20 states across the country.
Efforts are being made to restore the power supply at the earliest. Power Grid Corporation CMD RN Naik earlier said that power supply will be restored in major cities affected by the blackouts.
"A disturbance occurred in the NR, ER and NER electricity grid at 1300 hours today leading to a blackout in these regions except survival of small pockets in Delhi, Kolkata, Narora etc. Supply to affected regions is being extended from Western and Southern Region grids," Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) said in a statement.
"Presently supply to NR has been extended from Gwalior on Gwalior-Agra line up to Delhi stations. Supply to railway traction and metro has been restored to almost all the points. Hydro Stations in NR have been started and supply has restored up to Punjab and Haryana areas also," the statement read.
"Start-up supply has been extended to Singrauli, Rihand via Vindhyachal and startup supply to Talchar has been extended from Western Region It is expected that supply to all the major points in affected regions shall be made available in 2 to 3 of hours time," the PGCIL added.
The Power Grid Corporation of India updated the status of the situation at 17.30 hours on their official website:
1. Supply to Metro and Railway traction restored at 1530 Hrs.
2. Demand Met:-
- Delhi - 2100 MW
- Northern region - 15000 MW
- Eastern region - 4200 MW
- North Eastern region - 900 MW
- Western Region - 28100 MW
- Southern Region - 26250 MW
- All India - 64450 MW
3. Hydro generation revived: 8500 MW
4. Startup power extended to following stations;-
- NR - Singaurli/Rihand, Kanpur, Dadri(Thermal), Hissar/Panipat, Jaipur, Moga, Uri(J&K)
- ER- Talchar, Farakka, Kahalgaon, Chukha, Tala, Maithon
Although supply to metro and railway lines was restored by 5.30 pm, trains are running late.
There are a total of five electricity grids in the country mainly Northern, Eastern, North Eastern, Southern and Western. Except the Southern grid all other grid are inter-connected with each other.
