Powerless north India gropes in the dark 3 Jan 2001, 1015 hrs IST, THE TIMES OF INDIA NEWS SERVICE

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NEW DELHI: Entire north India plunged into darkness in the early hours of Tuesday when the northern power grid collapsed due to a technical fault in its 250 mw Panki power station in Uttar Pradesh. Later in the day, Union Power Minister Suresh Prabhu ordered an inquiry into the collapse. ``Central Electricity Authority (CEA) Chairman R N Srivastava will head the inquiry and will submit the report within a week. The CEA will find the reasons for the failure, suggest preventive measures and ways to restore the breakdown in the shortest possible time,'' Prabhu told reporters. He said strict punitive measures would be taken against those found responsible for the grid collapse. Asked whether there was a possibility of any sabotage, Prabhu said,``Everything will be clear after the committee's report within a week.'' Life in the northern states - which get power from the grid - including Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, faced a total breakdown, including that of water supply, as the disruption of the electricity supply continued throughout the day. At 4.40 am, there was an abrupt sinking of the northern grid voltage which resulted into tripping of the Indraprastha, Rajghat, Badarpur and Dadri generating units. Preliminary inquiries showed that the bus-bars developed a fault at Panki grid sub-station at about 3.10 am, which caused tripping of the 400 kv transmission lines emanating from there and the generating units in the northern region. Delhi's total power requirement is placed at around 2200-2300 mw and the northern grid accounts for 70 per cent of the supply. The total collapse of the grid causes a loss of about 15,500 mw of generation. Although electricity was restored by Tuesday evening, many parts in New Delhi, including Saket, Greater Kailash-I, Sarojini Nagar, R K Puram, Mehrauli, Vasant Kunj in south Delhi, Maya Puri, Hari Nagar, Janak Puri in west Delhi, and many parts of east Delhi still were in total darkness. Most of these parts were affected as there was a ``tripping'' for the second time in the day. According to Confederation of Indian Industry estimates, the breakdown, which plunged eight states into darkness, is estimated to have

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