Chennai: With the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi calling upon the people nationwide to turn off all electric lights in their lights for nine minutes from 9 pm on Sunday and "light candle, lamps or cellphone flashlights" , to fight the "darkness of coronavirus", power grid managers have begun advising all domestic electricity consumers that 'switching off lights' needs to be done properly, with precautions, to avoid a total grid collapse.
If the entire domestic lightlng load across India is switched off at Sunday 9 pm, as appealed by the Prime Minister, then to that extent there would be dip in the power demand and hence all the more necessary to take some simple protective measures, say sources in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).
If everybody switches off the lights at the same time, the demand goes down and all high voltage (HV) lines "may trip due to high voltage problem," the sources said.
As it is not possible to "back down" thermal power stations for five to ten minutes, everybody, after the observance, would again switch on all lights after ten minutes. By that time, the left over HV lines could get 'over loaded', leading to cascading and tripping of power lines which could lead to a "grid collapse", the sources said.
Hence, it is better for all home consumers to first 'SWITCH ON ALL FANS AND ACs' AND THEN TURN OFF LIGHTS," the TNEB sources advises all households.
