The Delhi government has proposed that the national capital be insulated from the Northern Grid through the “islanding effect.” Mumbai at present is benefiting from such a scheme.
The idea came up during the discussions of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Delhi Power Minister Haroon Yusuf with Union Power Minister SushilKumar Shinde, when the CM urged the Union minister to strictly enforce grid discipline on the northern states.
Principal secretary, power, Shakti Sinha, speaking to Business Standard on Tuesday about the islanding effect proposal said, “This would require dedicated power generating stations for Delhi.”
At present, Delhi gets power from 25-odd generating stations. In the islanding set up, the city would remain unaffected even when the Northern Grid collapses. Elaborating on the idea behind this proposal, Sinha said, “Basically, we need to have protection measures in place so that when there is a surge of power, Delhi remains unaffected. It will be like building a wall insulating Delhi from the effects of the grid.”
As the idea has just been mooted, Delhi government will get down to studying the feasibility before it takes it up with the Centre.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana have been routinely breaking the grid discipline, Sinha said. The three states have drawn an excess of 2,000 Mw leading to the collapse of the grid.
The secretary claims Delhi power companies, in contrast, buy power much in advance and keep a safety margin. “Its only on rare occasion that Delhi has drawn 20-30 Mw of excess power and that, too, for an hour at the most.”
