HYDERABAD: A spokesman for the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has said that ‘additional load management’ measures in the area of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) last Saturday and Sunday night were taken in accordance with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Grid Code 2023.

In a statement sent to Dawn on Tuesday, he said that this action was taken in response to an “emergency situation” that arose during the night between Saturday and Sunday (July 21 and 22).

He was alluding to Dawn’s report suggesting that forced loadshedding was carried out by Hesco under advice of NTDC which made lives of people miserable who were already experiencing unusually higher temperatures and heat index.

Consumers’ complaints were aplenty that around 10 to 12 hours of loadshedding was resorted to in many areas. But a Hesco spokesman had insisted that forced loadshedding was carried out at various feeders of different grid stations between 2am and 5:30am and then system had started normalising.

Explains ‘emergency step’ of one-hour shutdown per feeder was advised due to significant dip in wind power generation

In view of the massive loadshedding, DC Hyderabad Zainul Abiden Memon had to speak to Hesco officers to know why this unusual loadshedding was carried out. It would also be relevant to mention here that NTDC officers had never been forthcoming to offer explanation in response to media’s queries relating to any fault at their 500kV or 220kV grid stations in Jamshoro or in case of massive power breakdown.

In his statement, the NTDC spokesman further said that recent power outages were experienced in the Hesco service area. He emphasised that the claim of a 12-hour loadshedding period solely attributable to NTDC was an exaggerated figure and not an accurate representation of situation. Explaining this, he said that the primary reason for these measures was a significant dip in power generation from 36 wind farms located in Gharo and Jhimpir wind clusters. These wind farms, with a combined installed capacity of 1,845 MW, support NTDC’s 500kV Jamshoro grid station. The abnormally low wind speeds resulted in a drastic reduction in wind power generation, leading to an extreme load burden on the NTDC transformers at Jamshoro.

In an effort to safeguard critical equipment, NTDC coordinated with Hesco authorities to implement additional loadshedding measures. However, wind generation was normalised by Sunday morning and additional loadshedding was no longer required in Hesco service area.

He said actual loadshedding duration was significantly less than 12 hours. He added that the quantum of loadshedding was about 75MW for four hours and 142 MW for six hours on Saturday-Sunday night, respectively, resulting in an average interruption of approximately one hour per 11 kV feeder selected by Hesco for this power curtailment.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2024