The Union Power Ministry has decided to integrate the southern grid with the national grid in January 2014, Minister for Power and Corporate Affairs M. Veerappa Moily said here on Sunday.

It would help the southern States receive power from the northern grids and other States. To a question, Mr. Moily said the Centre would come out with a debt restructuring plan for the loss-making electricity supply companies in the States. But the companies would have to comply with certain conditions, to be laid down by the Centre, for availing themselves of the plan.

The Centre is planning to levy heavy penalties on States that overdraw electricity and imprison their Chief Secretaries to curb the practice that cause grid failure.

“I am contemplating now [a] heavy fine and also a provision to imprison authorities and Chief Secretaries for disobeying that... Perhaps, we need to enforce it,” Union Power Minister Veerapa Moily told Karan Thapar in Devil’s Advocate programme on CNN-IBN.

Power ministry advised to do away with unscheduled interchange charges for deviating states.

The two-member panel asked by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to probe the twin national grid collapses on

July 30 and 31 has said prevention of such occurences requires strict adherence to grid discipline. A CERC official told Business Standard the report was given last Thursday. It has blamed underdrawal by the western region states and overdrawal by the northern and eastern states for the collapses, affecting power supply for hours in 21 states.

To avert a total breakdown of the grid system and prevent a major blackout in future, the northern grid States have formulated a 12-point plan including installation of automatic demand management schemes.

At a recent meeting held at the Power Ministry, the plan was agreed upon by a dozen States including major offenders Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and Delhi were also part of the agreement.

Political will required to ensure all the parties sharing the power grids follow certain rules, the co said.

Global conglomerate GE has said that Indian power transmission system is quite robust compared to many developed nations, and a "political will" is needed to reinforce discipline to avoid situations like the recent grid failure. GE Energy, part of the US-based multinational giant, said the "political will" was required to ensure that all the parties sharing the power grids follow certain rules.

The Power Ministry today proposed to carry out an independent audit of transmission grids within three months, a move that comes amid massive failures of grids last week that affected half of the c

A 22-year-old entrepreneur is bringing electricity to villages through a technology that produces and stores renewable energy on location, reports Peerzada Abrar.