India's Power Grid Survived 'Diya Jalao' – but Only for Drastic Action Behind the Scenes

'...Officials predicted that if all 171.3 million households participated, the loss of load could be 12,452 MW. The actual total demand drop recorded during the event turned out to be 31,089 MW – more than twice as high! This implies that in order to save the grid and keep voltages and line loads within permissible limits, engineers turned off select transmission lines. This in turn means large areas were without power before and during the event, and so compliance was not totally voluntary. In addition to revenue, there were also huge losses incurred by the need to ramp up and then down thermal power stations’ generated power since this exercise requires many tonnes of steam being released into the air. Other major direct costs came from deploying almost the entire staff of the power sector on duty, possibly contravening the lockdown’s physical distancing requirements...'