Planning and Operation of Indian Power System during the Pan India Lights Off Event

A resilient and reliable grid is expected to ride through power system events of varying severity on a regular basis. Indian power system which is one of the largest synchronous systems in the world managed one such unprecedented event on 5^th April 2020 when all India demand reduced sharply by around 31000 MW within a short span of twenty-five minutes due to switching off of lighting load across the country. The demand then recovered by around 23000 MW in the next twenty minutes. This paper elaborates on the planning, coordination, and execution involved in the successful management of this pan-India lights off event. The post-event analysis of important system parameters and insights gained from the event are also brought out in the paper. The insights gained during the event may enhance the capability to handle such high impact low probability events in the future.