Jalandhar/New Delhi, January 3
Alleged apathy on the part of the northern states in installing new fog-resistant technology coupled with poor upkeep of high-tension lines apparently resulted in power grid collapse on a foggy day around 3 am yesterday.

With the collapse, the transmission of power generation in the region stopped and thousands of commuters — not the only ones to be affected by the blackout — were forced to go through a nightmarish experience, as trains stopped for hours in the middle of the night. It was a total blackout in Punjab, parts of Haryana, J&K and Himachal Pradesh. The industry, too, lost several thousand crores on account of the power failure.

Then, there was another tripping yesterday at around 10 pm. And this one was blamed on a fire/flash at Bawana power station near Hissar. Fog was not the spoiler here, sources in Delhi said. But, former PSEB chief engineer Padamjit Singh puts it the other way round: “The flash (at Bawana) could not have caused such a huge breakdown, as the system has layers of protection… What led to such a big power failure needs to be probed.”

However, the first tripping (caused at 3 am) was worrisome, as engineers say it was “due to lack of foresight and speed in getting the sanctioned anti-fog technology installed”. Notably, the northern states have been lagging behind in carrying out the ongoing plan of Union Power Ministry as part of which the older porcelain-made insulating discs were to be replaced with new discs made of polymer, which are fog-resistant.

While moisture and sand molecules do not penetrate through the new technology discs, the older discs accumulate sand and pollution, which gets mixed with moisture caused by fog and penetrates through, thus resulting in tripping. The discs are brown coloured pieces of porcelain that connect one high tension wire with another and can be seen on all such lines.

The Northern Regional Power Committee — a body of all states —conducted a meeting in the Capital specifically for the purpose on December 16. It noted that Haryana had installed anti-fog insulating discs only on seven of the 25 high-tension lines in the state. Punjab was to install a total of 3,888 anti-fog insulators, but it had done so only on 2,336.

Also, the Bhakra Beas Management Board has installed the new technology only on seven lines out of the 21 identified for replacement. For 12 other lines, the BBMB was awaiting delivery of polymer insulators — which is not expected till April 2010 and the replacement would be completed only by June next.

Separately, on two key 400 KV high -ension trunk routes — Dehar-Panipat and Dehar-Bhiwani — the BBMB is struggling even for the statutory clearance for a specific length of polymer discs. And on the Nalagarh-Kaithal line, anti-fog discs were not installed on any of the 880 identified lines.

As per sources in the power sector, six of the major 400 KV power grid lines in North India had not even been closed for a day for the mandatory pre-winter maintenance, which includes cleaning of the insulating discs and checking for power leakages. They include: Hissar-Patiala, Malerkotla-Ludhiana, Nalagarh-Patiala, Natpha Jhakri-Nalagarh, Patiala- Malerkotla and Natpha Jhakri-Abdullapur (Haryana).

Also, sources pointed out that the Power Grid Corporation had even entered into a deal to use helicopters for washing polluted lines and cleaning the porcelain discs. The states concerned were to bear 80 per cent of the expenditure. Of all the proposed lines, eight had “not been cleaned”. Notably, in this method a pump is attached to a chopper, which sprays mineral water on the transmission lines and discs. The purpose is to rid the lines of moisture, sand and other pollutants that interfere in the movement of power. Interestingly, the Union Power Ministry has not yet announced any inquiry into the power grid failure.