Power minister Piyush Goyal had to face electricity outage himself on Friday at a press briefing on achievements of his ministries, prompting Press Information Bureau (PIB) to order an inquiry into the incident.
Goyal was holding the conference to talk about achievements of his ministries during the first two years of the Narendra Modi government when the lights suddenly went off and remained so for some time.
Talking in lighter vein, Goyal said, "My wife tells me that power should go off once in every programme that I hold so that I can be sure that I have miles to go before I rest and sleep. I don't know whether they have made it a practice or guidance or it is actually gone."
According to a preliminary report submitted to PIB, it was found that the power supply of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) was restored after 45 minutes at 12.10 pm but in order to avoid further tripping, the supply was maintained on diesel generator sets.
It further stated there was a power failure at 11.25 am from the NDMC side.
The National Media Centre has a back-up of 4 Gensets – 2 Gensets of 500 KVA and 2 Gensets of 750 KVA which are in a auto mode.
Soon after the power failure, the sets started on automode but due to surge in requirement of power the air circuit braker of the supply tripped and load automatically transferred to 500 KVA Gensets, it said.
Since the power supply was not stable in automatic mode, PIB officials took the decision to put the gensets into manual mode and maintain the supply without any further tripping till the end of the press conference, it added.
