Impact of Covid-19 on Indian power sector

RN Sen

Covid-19 which o r i g i n a t e d from China in December 2019 and subsequently spread across the world, subsequently turned into a pandemic. For the first time, the world economy collapsed to this extent only after World war II. Lockdown has a major impact across most Nations including India. India declared nationwide lock down from March 25 for 21 days and subsequently extended it up to May 3.

Current power scenario

Current situation has been a challenging one for everyone. The power sector is impacted with overall load drop to the extent of 25-30 percent compared to 2019.

The key stakeholders are doing their utmost to maintain the overall grid situation and strike a balance between supply and demand. There has been significant addition from the renewable energy capacity, but in addition to the peak load base load catering is still done through thermal plants.

It is imperative for states to maintain robust and effective power mix and spinning Reserves. The impact of the 9-minute Load Back Down bears testimony to our system operator’s capability to manage things and emphasis the need of a good power mix.

Considering the average Plant Load Factor have come down from 66 percent (FY 20) to below 55 percent which could spur the use of oil support and cause substantial increase in power costs, it becomes incredibly important and critical to manage morning and evening peaks.

Efficient Planning by using various tools to forecast accurate requirements coupled with storage seem to be the way forward and a key learning from the current situation. The stakeholders need to take cognizance of the situation and move in the right direction.

The demand pattern will depend on extension of lockdown period in various states. Since the demand has crashed nearly by 30 percent and renewable energy generation can’t be curtailed, the situation can be managed with thermal generation available on bar.

It is advisable that during this period, generators can undertake routine maintenance work including AOH. Even transmission lines can carry-out O&M works on transmission elements that have been shut down to control reactive power for voltage control. Hydro generation can store precious water in reservoirs. All these activities need to be executed in an integrated manner with due coordination between different Sectoral Entities

Covid-19 has led to issues regarding managing the balance of power mix and overall supply side. Although, government has issued various notifications mentioning that RE projects are to have a must-run status and there would not be any disruptions in the flow of power and payments (where RE generators were owed `10,000 crores from Discoms pre-lockdown), the experiences which we are currently having indicate otherwise. Due to nationwide lockdown, the demand drop has been in the range of 27-30 percent of the demand in 2019.