International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume III, Issue VI, June 2018|ISSN 2454-6194

Review of Power System Blackout

Manish Parihar1, M.K. Bhaskar2
1, 2
Electrical Engineering Department, M.B.M Engineering College, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Abstract- The modern society is so much dependent upon the use TABLE I: Regional Grids and Their Acronyms.
of electrical energy that it has become a part and partial of
human life.Power failures are particularly critical at sites where Grid Name Acronym
the environment and public safety are at risk. When a power
Northern Regional Grid NR
system is subjected to large disturbances control actions need to
be taken to steer the system away from severe consequences. Western Regional Grid WR
These disturbances often result in blackout of the system, which
in turn causes huge losses in the system as well as monetary Eastern Regional Grid ER
losses. In this paper Indian blackout and past blackout North-Eastern Regional Grid NER
indifferent country occurred is discussed.
Southern Regional Grid SR
Keyword- Power System Blackout, Causes and Impact, Indian
Grid System Collapse

I. INTRODUCTION

E lectricity is one of the most important for human being

that science has given to them. It has also become a part
of modern life and one cannot think of a world without it. The
importance of electricity realizes when it goes in the mood of
failure. Power system blackouts have become a phenomenon
that seems to be more important [2].
Therefore it is necessary to develop new techniques to reduce
the occurrence of blackout in future. In order to increase
reliability of power system, to balance power generation
demand, and to supply energy to load centre at far distant,
interconnection of power system increasing day by day.
Eventually due to its size system prone to disturbances and
cascade failures which lead to blackout of power system. Thus
it becomes extremely essential to identify such events which
can initiate a cascade failure and consecutive action should be Fig. 1 Shows July 2012 India blackout affected states.
taken well within time to avoid complete system blackout [1]. Here Dark shaded region shows affected states on 30 July
A. What is Blackout? power outages and Mild shaded region shows affected states
on 31 July 2012[3].
A blackout refers to the total loss of power to an area and is
the most severe form of power outage that can occur in a II. JULY 2012 INDIAN BLACKOUT
power system. It can be thought of as a situation when loads
of thousands of megawatts is disconnected from the On early morning of July 30𝑡ℎ the electricity supply demand
generators supplying power in specific wide area. Blackout balance tightened in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
situation doesn‟t arises all of sudden but as series of events. Trouble spread in chain reaction, causing blackout for entire
There are many causes of power failures in a power system northern grid affecting 300 million people and ending at
network like faults at power stations, damage to electric around 7 pm on same day. Another blackout came at 1p.m on
transmissionlines, substations or other parts of distribution July 31 and covering northern, eastern, north-eastern grids
system, a short circuit, or the overloading of electricity mains. affecting 600 million people. Transportation services were
As a result the entire high voltage transmission grid to force disrupted, traffic signal fails to work, and coal miners were
out of service, thereby isolating the load it would normally trapped in mines as elevators were shut down. Direct cause of
serve. large blackouts includes electricity supply capacity failing to
meet growing demand in India. Due to less rainfall
The country is geographically divided in five regions hydroelectric power output was reduced and there is increase
Northern, Eastern, Western, North-Eastern and Southern demand for electricity to pump ground water for agricultural
region.

www.rsisinternational.org Page 8
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume III, Issue VI, June 2018|ISSN 2454-6194

irrigation due to droughts and as peak summer duration overloading of the tie-line. The regional load dispatch centre
electricity demand increases to power air conditioners, initiated load shedding to reduce the load on this line but the
coolers, fans etc. Grid troubles contributed to spreading in a measure taken were inadequate WR was also informed to
chain reaction national wide. It is considered as the largest reduce the generation to curb the power flow through this line
power outage in history as number of people affected. but the response was not quick enough and With the
increasing load, the current flow through the transmission line
A. Primary Causes
increased and due to lack of reactive power compensation, the
There are several factor that contributed in initiation of grid voltage profile of the line dropped. This condition was sensed
collapse. The 400 kV Bina-Gwalior-Agra-2 was under by the distance relay as fault and it tripped the line.
planned shutdown since 28th July 2012 for up-gradation work
to 765 kV. Thereafter outages started from the afternoon of
29th July 2012 as under [4]:
TABLE II: Sequence of Outages on 29 July.

Transmission
Time Reason
S.no. element

Tripped due to
29th July operation of distance
220 kV Kota –
1 2012 protection three phase
Badod
15:15 Zone-1 indications at
Badod end

29th July 220 kV

2 2012 Bhinmal(PG) – Phase to earth fault.
15:40 Sirohi

29th July
400 kV Bhinmal Tripped due to
3 2012
– Kankroli insulator de-capping.
21:45

Emergency outage for

a period of two hours
29th July
400 kV Zerda – to takeout one Tool Fig. 2 Regional Grids on Map of INDIA
4 2012
Kankroli &Plant which got
22:18
stuck with one polymer Figure shows the four regional grids on the map of India
insulator. along with the all major transmission lines and
interconnections between various grids. Before the
It is observed that the 400 kV network between Western disturbance the northern region was already deficit of
Region and Northern Region got depleted progressively over generation and most of this power was supplied by western
the night starting with a planned outage on a high capacity region via tie lines [21].
corridor followed by two forced outages in quick succession. When the Bina-Gwalior-Agra line tripped due to load
Lack of Regulation among SLDCs Regulators did not encroachment, the power was re-routed to NR through ER.
integrate Standby Power with the grid. Domestic Load, This path WR ER-NR is much longer than the previous one.
Commercial Load, Essential Services Like Hospitals and Re-routing resulted in large angular separation between group
Industries are connected to common feeders and hence the of machines in WR and NR. This can be understood from a
priority based load shedding was not possible. System not simple Power-Angle equation as follows:
designed to restore Power to Essential Services in Minutes.
Indian grid Systems experienced poor frequency profile. In 𝐸1 × 𝐸2
𝑃12 = sin 𝛿
the Northern grid, more loads were met with available 𝑋12
generation at the cost of frequency. Power quality and Grid
security was compromised during this period. Here 𝑃12 represent line flow between two nodes, 𝐸1 & 𝐸2
represent node voltages, 𝑋12 is transfer reactance between
B. Sequence of Events Which Led to Blackout on 30th July node 1& node 2, and 𝛿is angular separation (load angle). Two
The NR is connected to WR through a number of nodes can be thought of point of exit in western region and
interconnections but it was observed that many of the point of entry in northern region. Re-routing increased the
interconnections were out of service due scheduled and forced transfer reactance between these two points. Also, 'sin' is a
outages at the time of disturbance. The 400(kV) Bina- increasing function, so if we have to transfer the same amount
Gwalior-Agra was the only main AC circuit remain which of power between these two points with increased transfer
connect NR to WR. Thus the flow of power from WR to NR reactance, the value of δ has to go up. This means that the
region via Bina-Gwalior-Agra link increased which led to rotors of the NR machines further fall behind the rotors in the

www.rsisinternational.org Page 9
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume III, Issue VI, June 2018|ISSN 2454-6194

WR machines. This can result into another phenomenon III. BLACKOUT ON 31st JULY 2012
called as power swings. Most of the installed relays were
Again on 31st July 2012 there was more severe incident took
distance relays (ex. Impedance relays) and thus could not
place and the grid disturbance disconnected the WR from rest
differentiate between a power swing and a fault condition and
of grid system and the system was operating in an insecure
so tripped on power swings.
condition at the frequency 49.84 Hz prior to disturbance. The
As previously stated, NR was generating less than its demand. NR was connected to the WR via majorly 3 AC tie-lines but
So the frequency of northern region dropped and the system soon all of them tripped one by one. This time, the electrical
went into blackout due to operation of under frequency relays. centre of the power swing was inside the ER and nearer to the
It is obvious that this loss of load rendered ER and WR WR-ER interface. So the situation was slightly different from
regionswith a surplus generation and the frequency in these that on 30th July. As a result of the power swing, the tie-lines
regions shot up. This also caused a few of the WR generating between WR and the ER tripped. Eventually due to tripping of
units to shut down. some generating unit because of under frequency relay, large
angular oscillations were generated in the rest of the system
Following are the sequence which lead to northern grid
and a large number of lines tripped within the new grid and
blackout is shown in table [4]:
finally NEW grid system collapsed. Below table shows the
TABLE III: Sequence of Outages on 30 July. sequence which lead to blackout initiation on 31st July as
follows:
Date & Time Transmission Element
TABLE III: Initiation of Outages on 31 July
30th July, 2012
400kV Bina – Gwalior-1 Line Tripped.
02:33:11
Date &Time Transmission Element
220 kV Gwalior-Malanpur 1. Zone-1 Tripped (on
30th July, 2012
Power Swing) with the above events, practically
02:33:13
all the AC links from the WR to the NR were lost.

30th July, 2012 400 kV Jamshedpur – Rourkela line, line-1, 2, and 31 July,2012 400kVBina – Gwalior-1,2 line tripped
02:33:14 3 tripped on zone 3 protection. 13:00:13 220kV Shivpuri-Sabalgarh-1 tripped.

30th July, 2012 400 kV Gorakhpur-Muzaffarpur-2 tripped (on

02:33:14 Power Swing). 132kV Pichhore-Shivpuri tripped
31 July,2012
400 kV Ranchi- Maithon-1 tripped (due to
30th July, 2012 400kVBalia – Biharsharif-2 line tripped (on power 13:00:15
Power Swing).
02:33:15 swing).

31 July,2012 220 kV bus coupler tripped at Tarkera tripped

The NEW grid separated into two islands with one island 13:00:18 400 kV Jamshedpur-Rourkela-1 tripped.
surviving and the other one collapsing.Figure below shows
the frequency measured by WAMFS during the blackout. It is
Once again due to severity of the frequency fluctuation,
observed that the Mumbai and Kanpur frequencies deviate
practically all the AC links from the WR to the rest of the grid
significantly. With the above events, all the AC links from the
were lost. After several minutes Indian grid collapsed as
ER (Eastern Region) to the NR (Northern Region) were lost
shown in table below:
[15].
TABLE IV: Sequence of Outages on 31 July

Time Transmission Element

400 kV Kankroli-Jodhpur tripped due to dip in

31 July,2012
voltage, Wagoora-Kishenpur (1&2) (tripped due to
13:01:28
Power Swing)

31 July,2012 Ballabhgarh-Gr Noida tripped, Z1, 3phase,

13:01:30 Kanpur-Panki-1 tripped (Under voltage)

400kV Patna-Balia-2 tripped ( 3-ph fault),

31 July,2012
Kankroli - Debari 220kV tripped (Under voltage
13:03:18
protection)

Fig.3 Frequency Measured by WAMFS During Blackout

www.rsisinternational.org Page 10
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume III, Issue VI, June 2018|ISSN 2454-6194

IV. CAUSES AND REMEDIES United States first massive power failure occur due to heavy
loading condition, the backup protection relays tripped
Overloading and lack of reactive power compensation
transmission lines between northeast and southwest. Also
resulted in tripping of transmission lines. All the generating
there was not enough spinning reserve kept at the time
units are equipped with Power System Stabilizers. Which
blackout initiated. As a solution extra high voltage
protect the system from instability. But they were not
transmission lines were proposed and distributed spinning
calibrated properly and hence could not function well.
reserve was put into practice.
• It was observed that the load relief that should have been
𝑑𝑓 On 28th September 2003 Major blackout occurred in Italy.
achieved due to operationof under frequency relays and Tree flashover hit the Italy Switzerland tie-line. Connection
𝑑𝑡
was not achieved. was not re-established by auto re-closer due to a large phase
difference across the line, as it was heavily loaded before
• There is a need of tools that can estimate the state of the
tripping. Within few seconds power deficit in Italy started to
system dynamically and ata faster rate. This will enable
produce loss of synchronism with the rest of Europe
the operators to know the actual power flows on
electricity network. Tie line between Italy-France and Italy
different lines.
Austria tripped due to distance relay. Finally the transmission
By analysing above situation and events it is observed that corridor between Italy and Slovenia got overloaded and
blackout is progressed with some regularity and it can be tripped.After several minutes, the entire Italian system
divided into several phases as precondition, initiating events, collapsed as the nationwide blackout. On January 2015
cascade events, final sate and restoration. Different terrorists attackedon power transmission lines in Naseerabad,
precondition happened before blackout like system stressful Baluchistan. This attack disrupted the 220 kVA line from the
condition, inadequate reactive power reserve, important Guddu power plant in Sindh to Sibi in Baluchistan. This
equipment out of service, natural reason such as wind, caused a cascading effect by tripping the 500 kVA national
thunderstorm etc. initiating events are various in different transmission line and forcing a number of power stations to
blackout. Short circuit, overload, protection hidden failure and shut down around midnight [19].
loss of generator are initiating events which directly cause
blackout [8]. VI. LESSON LEARNT FROM MAJOR BLACKOUT
The incorrect operations of protective relays have also Due to cascaded events, the electrical distance between
contributed to number of cascade failures and blackout. These generator and loads is increased by tripping major
can be triggered by initiating events causing poweroscillations transmission lines. This causes deviations in generator load
and voltage fluctuations which may result in high current and angles and creates inadequate coupling between the
low voltages. The low voltages and high current can be generating systems due to lag of synchronising power. When
detected by other connected tie line as a fault. Beside power the angle difference between two regions is large then the line
oscillation and voltage fluctuation, line overloads can also in between two regions will be depressed with low voltage.
cause cascade event. Power system faults, line switching, Line tripping due to heavy load and depressed voltage is
generator disconnection and the loss or application of load caused mostly by the distance protection relay as fault
results in sudden change to electrical power whereas detection in zone 3. Therefore, in the power system operation,
mechanical power input to generator remains constant. These keeping a flat voltage profile is always recommended to keep
system disturbances causeoscillation in machine rotor angles the security at a higher level [19].
and result in severe power flow swings. These power swing
The blackouts mostly happened due to voltage collapse rather
causes unwanted relay operation which worsen the power
than under frequency conditions. When a line trips, the rest of
system disturbance and resulting in major blackout to occur.
the lines must carry the power, thus consume more reactive
power and reduce the voltage at the load centre without
V. BLACKOUTREVIEW: LEARN FROM PAST
affecting the frequency. Shortage of reactive power causes
In the old good days, when power system was very small, more voltage drop at stressed line loading conditions.
its management structure was more secure. Power industries Therefore the voltage become as a key stress indicator of the
were service oriented and driven completely by the power system rather than the frequency. Also the voltage drop
Government. With the increasing load demand deregulation of at the load centre indicates that the systems will experience
power industries were introduced as a result stress on power the low frequency after it breaks up into islands [3].
system increased. Further, interconnection with neighbouring
countries and different regions made the power system VII. IMPACT OF BLACKOUT
network stronger however it increases the risk on
Electricity fuels our existence. It powers water
disturbances.
purification, waste, food, transportation and communication
In past many blackout event had occur, analysis on past systems. Modern social life is impossible to imagine without
blackout should be discussed to learn the root cause of it. Blackout includes measurable economic losses and less
problems and factors involved in it. On 9th November 1965 easily quantified social costs. Supply will become ever more

www.rsisinternational.org Page 11
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume III, Issue VI, June 2018|ISSN 2454-6194

precarious because of peak oil, political instability, REFERENCES

infrastructural neglect, global warming and the shift to [1]. Sudeep Dattatraya Kulkarniirlekar , “ Blackouts in the power
renewable energy re-sources. Demand will become stronger system”, IJEER ISSN 2348-6988 (online) Vol. 3 Issue 4, pp: (1-
because of population growth, rising levels of affluence and 7), Month: October - December 2015.
the consumer „addictions‟ which accompany this. [2]. Md. MoyeedAbrar, “Power cut off and Power Blackout in India a
Major threat- An Overview”, International Journal of
In examining these blackouts numerous causes were reported, Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 5, Issue 7,
July-2016, ISSN 2278-7763.
including: technical failure, extreme weather events, political
[3]. S. Shivashimpiger, Siridevi, V. Parthasarathy, Dr. H.M.
spite, deceiving the enemy during war, sabotage by narco- Ravikumar, “A Qualitative analysis of Power System Blackouts -
terrorists or political opponents, in-adequate generation Northern Grid Case Study”, (IJETER), Vol. 3 No.6, Pages : 373 -
capacity, financial problems, corruption, increased air- 379 (2015) Special Issue of NCTET 2K15 - Held on June 13, 2015
in SV College of Engineering, Tirupati.
conditioning use, infrastructural neglect, punishment for non-
[4]. Report on the Grid Disturbances on 30th July and 31st July 2012,
payment of power bills and a lack of re-sources to generate Submitted in Compliance to CERC Order in Petition No. 167/Suo-
electricity [5]. Motu/2012 dated 1st Aug2012.
[5]. Ken Koyama, “Blackout and Impact of World‟s Largest Blackout
Modern societies have become dependent on air- In India”, IEEJ special bulletin, August 2012.
conditioning, computers, lights, fridges and freezers that are, [6]. F. A. Shaikh, Ramanshu Jain , MukeshKotnala, NickeyAgarwal,
in turn, dependent on an uninterrupted supply of electricity. “New Techniques for the Prevention of Power System Collapse”,
(IJEEE) ISSN (PRINT): 2231 – 5284, Vol-1, Iss-3, 2012.
Such is our dependency that our comfort, security, [7]. Witchaya Pimjaipong, Tormit Junrussameevilai, Natthakorn
communication systems, transport, health, food supply, Maneerat, “Blackout Prevention Plan – The Stability, Reliability
businesses and social equity systems strain when electricity and Security Enhancement in Thailand Power Grid”, Conference
supplies are interrupted. Paper · February 2005 DOI: 10.1109/TDC.2005.1546803 ·
Source: IEEE Xplore,
Increasing numbers of people are living longer and enjoying https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4196502.
[8]. Wei. Lu, Yvon. Bésanger, Eric. Zamaïand Daniel.Radu,
rising living standards. This increases demand for electrical “Blackouts: Description, Analysis and Classification”,
appliances. Across the same time period demand for Proceedings of the 6th WSEAS International Conference on
electricity is estimated to grow. This will require additional Power Systems, Lisbon, Portugal, September 22-24, 2006.
giga-watts to be generated. No one knows how this will be [9]. Dr.habil.sc.ing. JekabsBarkans, Mg.sc.ing.DianaZalostiba,
“Blackout Prevention and Power System Self-Restoration”,
generated. Guaranteed electrical power is also under threat Conference Paper October 2007 DOI:
because of resource constraint: fossil fuel depletion and the 10.1109/EURCON.2007.4400262, Source: IEEE Xplore.
transient nature of renewable energy sources. Peak oil and [10]. Tao Liu, Tao Wu, JianQiu, Guoqiang Li, “Design and
climate change are also causing an increase in the demand for Implementation of Online Data Assessment Based on E Format”,
International Journal of Smart Grid and Clean Energy, vol. 1, no.
electricity. 1, September 2012.
In consequence blackouts will become more frequent. This [11]. Peter W. Sauer, Kevin L. Tomsovic, Vijay Vittal, “Dynamic
Security Assessment” Article · May 2007, DOI:
means that serious questions will have to be asked at both the 10.1201/9781420009248.ch15, https://www.researchgate.net
individual and collective level concerning what is wanted and /publication/267201754.
what is needed, balancing what is good for individuals with [12]. Richa, Sh. Vivek Kumar, Sh. Kumar Dhiraj, “Voltage instability
what is good for others and ultimately what is good for the and its prevention using facts controller”, International Journal of
Engineering Research and Development e-ISSN: 2278-067X, p-
environment [20]. ISSN: 2278-800X, www.ijerd.com Volume 3, Issue 11
(September 2012), PP. 06-08.
VIII. CONCLUSION [13]. Ikbal ALI, MohdAsim AFTAB, S. M. Suhail HUSSAIN,
“Performance comparison of IEC 61850-90-5 and IEEE
The current power scenario in India is a big tussle that
C37.118.2 based wide area PMU communication networks”,
needs to be carefully handled. The demand is on a much Springer Article · July 2016 DOI: 10.1007/s40565-016-0210.
higher side com-pared to the supply, thus the Indian industry [14]. SaurabhSahasrabuddhe, "Islanding technique in power systems to
and its general society are experiencing frequent power avoid cascading failure" (2014).Masters Theses.
7310.http://scholarsmine.mst.edu / masters theses /7310.
shortages. Blackouts are usually a result of series of event
[15]. John J. Grainger, William D. Stevenson, Jr., “POWER SYSTEM
rather than one single. However, it becomes extremely ANALYSIS”, International Editions 1994, ISBN 0-07-113338-0.
essential to find out that one single incident that initiated the [16]. K.V.S. Baba; S.R. Narasimhan, N.L. Jain, Amandeep Singh,
process. Past history of major and properly reported blackouts Rahul Shukla , Ankit Gupta, “Synchrophasor Based Real Time
Monitoring of Grid Events in Indian Power System”, POSOCO,
in the world is discussed and analysis is done so that we can INDIA,978-1-4673-8848-1/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE.
learn from past history.As day by day power demand [17]. Synchrophasors Initiative in India June 2012, POSOCO,India
increases, so to meet the power demand emphasize should be [18]. ArulampalamAtputharajah ,Tapan Kumar Saha, “Power System
given on renewable energy sources like energy from waste, Blackouts - Literature review”, Fourth International Conference
on Industrial and Information Systems, ICIIS 2009, 28 - 31
energy from tidal wave etc.
December 2009, Sri Lanka.
[19]. Steve Matthewman, “Blackouts: a sociology of electrical power
failure”, socialspace journal.eu.
[20]. Ministry of Power, Government of India, website
http://powermin.nic.in/.

www.rsisinternational.org Page 12
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume III, Issue VI, June 2018|ISSN 2454-6194

AUTHOR
Manish Pariharwas born in Rajasthan-
India. He completed his B.Tech in
Electrical & Electronics Engineering
VIET, Rajasthan.In 2017, M.E.(Power
Systems) from MBM Engineering
College, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.He is
working as assistant professor in MITS
Engineering College. He is also
associate member of The Institute of
Engineers (AM163285-2).

Dr. M.K. Bhaskar received B.E. from

Malviya Regional Engineering College
(MREC) known as MNIT, Jaipur and he
completed his master of engineering and
Phd. from M.B.M. engineering.
college.He is currently working as an
Professor in Electrical Engineering,
M.B.M. Engineering College, J.N.V.University, Jodhpur,
Rajasthan.

www.rsisinternational.org Page 13