State power authorities have issued a directive in this regard to field units

To avoid sharp crashing of power load in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to people to switch off their lights for nine minutes at 9 pm on April 5, load shedding in a staggered manner has been advised in Uttar Pradesh for an hour during the period.

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While passing on the instructions to its field units, the Uttar Pradesh State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) of the U.P. Power Transmission Corporation Limited has estimated that approximately 3000 MW sharp load reduction may occur in the State in a short duration of time.

“To avoid sharp crashing of load, load shedding in staggered manner may be done starting from approximately 8 pm to 9 pm” in U.P. Power Control Area, said Ram Swarath, Director, SLDC, in a directive to heads of the operation, technical and distribution department.

Reduction of the load may also cause a high voltage surge in the U.P. power grid, estimated the SLDC.

To operate the power grid in a “safe, secure and smooth manner,” instructions have also been given to field officers to keep in service all reactors in U.P. power grid during that period.

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Also, all capacitor banks must be kept out of service, while “must-run category hydro generating stations” have also been asked to reduce their generation as per requirement.

The generating stations have also been instructed to be ready to generate power in such a manner that the reactive power be absorbed to the limiting value of their capability curve, and remain in free governor mode operation, said the SLDC.