The government has set up a National Power Committee to ensure strict discipline as well as to resolve inter-state issues in utilisation of electricity grids in the country, it is learnt.
The setting up of the panel by the Union power ministry comes less than a year after one of the worst ever power grid failures impacted more than half of country’s population. Overdrawing of electricity by some states was cited as one of the reasons for the crisis.
CEA Chairperson would be heading the 18-member committee. The committee’s role would be crucial in evolving “a common approach to issues related to reliability and security” of the power grid system in the country, against the backdrop of growing complexity in managing them.
According to the Ministry order dated March 25, the panel would address issues among Regional Power Committees (RPCs) - that work towards improving operational performance of grids in a particular region. The panel is required to meet at least once in every six months and members can meet anytime to discuss any issue.
In one of the worst collapses, the northern grid had tripped on July 30, 2012, resulting in massive outages. The very next day, northern, eastern and north eastern grids had failed.
Presently, there are five regional grids in the country — northern, eastern, western, north eastern and southern. Work is also progressing to synchronise the Southern grid with the other four grids.