Context: Recently, the nine-minute ‘lights-off’ exercise scheduled for Sunday evening, as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to people across the country, has forced the grid operator to initiate an elaborate set of contingency measures to avert any crisis caused by the sudden massive load reduction quickly followed by a sharp increase.
Issues

• India has a baseload power demand of roughly 160 gigawatts (GW), that is 160,000 megawatts (MW). 
• Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO), which is the national load despatch centre and operates the national electricity grid, predicts daily demand of power and regulates supply from power generators based on these predictions. 
• In order to maintain the grid’s stability within a certain frequency (48.5- 51.5 hertz) and because we don’t have adequate electricity storage mechanisms, the accuracy of these predictions are very important so that power demand can be matched with supply. 
• During this 9-minute lights out initiative, about 10,000-12,000 MW of power demand is expected to vanish, according to estimates by power industry experts. 
• So POSOCO needs to ramp down electricity supply accordingly during this time block and ramp up again once this 9-minute period is over and the baseload demand returns in full strength. 
• Any missteps in handling this could possibly lead to a high voltage surge, tripping the lines, causing damage to the national grid and an extended power outage.

About Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO)

• It is a wholly owned Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Power. 
• It was earlier a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (Powergrid). 
• It was formed in March 2009 to handle the power management functions of PGCIL. 
• It is responsible to ensure the integrated operation of the Grid in a reliable,efficient and secure manner. 
• It consists of 5 Regional Load Despatch Centres and a National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC).
• The subsidiary was eventually made a separate company, leaving the parent firm with only the task of setting up transmission links. 
• The load despatch functions, earlier handled by PGCIL, have now come up to POSOCO.

Vision: To be a global institution of excellence for reliable & resilient power systems, fostering efficient electricity markets, promoting economy and sustainability.
Mission

• Ensure Integrated Operation of the Indian Power System to facilitate transfer of electric power within and across the regions and trans-national exchange of power with Reliability, Economy and Sustainability.
• Facilitate competitive and efficient wholesale electricity markets and administer settlement systems.
• Promote innovation and adoption of latest technology with cyber security.
• Nurturing human & intellectual capital.