SOHAIL IQBAL BHATTI
ISLAMABAD:
An inquiry committee has hold official of NEPRA, NTDC, power management, shift in-charge and his team as responsible for January 23, 2023 countrywide power breakdown and sent report to the federal cabinet.
A committee constituted under the convenorship of Petroleum Minister Dr Musadik Malik has prepared an inquiry report on major power breakdown in the country on January 23, 2023 and sent the report along with 13 recommendations to federal cabinet. And, next cabinet meeting to be held during the next week under chair PM Shehbaz Sharif would take up this inquiry report for discussion and further action.
According to inquiry report, the inquiry committee has made officials of NTDC, NEPRA, power control management and shift in-charge and his team as responsible of the major crisis and recommended departmental inquiry prior to any action against them.
As per inquiry report, there was no shortage of electricity in the system while fault erupted in Lahore on the HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) system as 600 megawatt additional electricity was added into the system from Sindh and the responsibility of the system was of Deputy Managing Director Ali Zain. Furthermore, WAPDA’s three units were held responsible for no immediate restoration of the power system after the breakdown.
It is also learnt from the inquiry committee’s report that the fault in HVDC system Lahore had erupted total 300 times during the last two years but no one paid attention to this. Similarly, owing to shortfall on the night of blackout, electricity was supplied from south to north as 5831 MW electricity was being generated from the power plants located in south of the country while power plants of north were generating 5852MW.
As per inquiry report, on the morning of 23rd January 2023 at 07:32AM, frequency reached at 50.75 megahertz and as a result 14 state-owned and privately owned power plants suspended power generation operation at 07:34AM. For controlling the frequency, power production from Ghazi Barotha Power House was reduced from 580MW to 250MW. However, system was badly affected due to reduction in power supply in the northern region and resultantly all power plants of northern region suspended operations.
Poor coordination, absence of unity of command among NTDC, NEPRA and other concerned institutes, shortage of experts, and poor technology etc have been declared as main reasons behind the major countrywide power crisis of 23rd January 2023.
According to the findings of inquiry committee’ report, the total demand of the country was 11,683 MW of which the power generators in the south of the network were generating 5,831MW and those in the north were generating 5,852MW. The demand in south was far less than generation in the south. On the other hand, there was a deficit of 4,130MW between generation and demand in the north which was being met from the southern generation through hybrid HVAC/HVDC transmission networks. The power flew on the AC Corridor (2x500kV circuits from Matiari to Dadu/Moro and 3x500kV from Guddu to north) was 1730MW, while 2400MW was flowing on the parallel Matiari-Lahore HVDC transmission line.
It is worth noting that the generation in the south is comprised of imported and local coal projects, nuclear plants and renewable project, mainly wind power projects.
The inquiry report, in its conclusion, said that the blackout that occurred (23rd January 2023) was due to the system operation including additional power from the south without considering the constrained transmission pathways and without switching on the powered off 500kV lines. Furthermore, the shift operator aggravated the situation by reducing power generation at Ghazi Barotha to create balance but that worked the other way and resulted in the loss of balance. This was a mistake which was done at the system operator’s end and could have been avoided through pre-event planning. However, if we look at all the factors leading to the incident, we need to consider delays in strengthening the AC system that is a requirement for the HVDC system to operate in a stable manner. Furthermore, the regulator, i-e NEPRA and the system operator need to work together to creat protocols to handle situations like these when power generators not fallinjg in the economic merit order need to be used for system security. That coordination is missing for which the government needs to issue policy instructions to NEPRA. As far as the system restoration is concerned, WAPDA needs to immediately improve the speed governing mechanism at Tarbela.
In its recommendations, the inquiry report said that the Grid Code clearly states all operating principles that are mandatory for system security and operations and the need is to conduct studies and prepare operation plan prior to brining scheduled generation on line on daily basis while initiate preparing daily operating plan on the operating principles of the Grid Code (OC 1.2).
WAPDA, in coordination with NTDC, must investigate black start capabilities at Tarbela, Mangla and Warsak power plants, as these plants repeatedly failed to operate in island models and caused significant restoration delays. Performance of governor control system at these plants must be verified for islanded and synchronized operating modes. Appropriate corrective measures must be taken urgently, where necessary.
The Grid Code mandates for provisions of pre-operational plants regarding black start facilities and pre-tested system restoration plan under blackout conditions. After the recent experience, it is necessary that the SO, WAPDA and IPPs establish a proper restoration plan and pre-test all the systems under blackout conditions, every year.
WAPDA, NTDC and IRSA must devise SOPs for low water season (December and January) to resolve water indent issues during the acute emergency situations, such as partial or total system blackout.
The system should be completely integrated smart, real time and driven by artificial intelligence (AI). To ensure this a SCADA (Supervisory control and data acquisition ) based on the most recent technology needs to be brought in place without any delay. Furthermore, technically advanced communication and protection system need to be seamlessly integrated by NTDC.
The stability of the recently activated HVDC system especially at Lahore HVDC Converter Station needs to be ensured to avoid the frequent commutation failures. An investigation into more than 300 commutation failures needs to be carried out by NTDC/NPCC on an emergent basis.
The activation of Guddu 747 and the optimal use of the existing generators in the control and northern regions need to be considered for system stability.
The need is to must develop an in house capability and skill set for exhaustive operational planning to support dispatchers in their day to day decision making under normal and emergency situations.
New talent well-versed with intelligent technologies need to inducted in the system and existing personnel need to be trained adequately.
It is also recommended that in order to ensure proper preparedness for system blackouts and subsequent restoration, the government should constitute an implementation committee under the convenorship of the Minister for Energy (Power Division), which shall include the respective heads of NTDC, NPCC, WAPDA, NEPRA, CPPA, the Secretary Ministry of Energy (Power Division) and the Secretary Ministry of Water Resources. The said committee may ensure proper coordinated planning and execution of the same.
A study on the governance of power system operations needs to be urgently carried out in order to take care of fragmentation, poor inter and intra departmental coordination and lack of unity of command.
A formal departmental inquiry should be carried out on the power control management team, the shift in-charge and his team.
The inquiry report also revealed that the terms of references of the committee were to probe the reasons/causes of the power breakdown in the country on 23-01-2023; fix responsibility of the power breakdown; and recommend remedial measures to prevent such occurrences in future.
Following the directions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to constitute an inquiry committee to probe the recent countrywide electricity breakdown, Energy Ministry’s power division constituted a committee comprising of the Minister of State for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik as Convenor while Irfan Ali, former Federal Secretary Power, Akhtar Hussain Mayo, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Quaid-i-Azam Thermal Power (Pvt) Limited and Professor Dr Tahir Nadeem Malik, Chairman Electrical Engineering Department, Hi-Tech University, Taxila as members. The committee also co-opted the services of Dr. Faiz Ahmad Chaudhry, former managing director (MD), National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and now Director LUMS Energy Institute, in the preparation of the inquiry report.
