IEEE: Lack of Rain a Leading Cause of Indian Grid Collapse

[Bob Bruhns]

I think what the article was suggesting is that a shortage of rainfall 
has increased the demand for pumped water, and a lot of water pumping is 
done at night because regulations on power consumption are relaxed then, 
and that would explain why the system overloaded at such a late hour.

 From what the unnamed senior electrical official said, there was 
West-North power flow, but no East-North power flow.  Maybe there should 
have been more East-North flow?  Or maybe that's impractical?

India evidently has several subgrids running unsynchronized (at very 
slightly different frequencies), as we do in the US.  I see slightly 
different "50 Hz"  frequencies displayed on the various grids - see the 
External Links at the bottom of this article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerGrid_Corporation_of_India

 From the size of the power blackout, I think they must have been 
linking their subgrids.  They would have to synchronize them do that, 
and maybe that makes syncing to a second subgrid impractical or 
time-consuming?

    Bob, WA3WDR