Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reminded people to light up lamps on Sunday night to show India's collective resolve to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
"#9pm9minute", the prime minister tweeted to remind people of the exercise.
Modi had on Friday urged people to switch off lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9:00 pm on April 5 to display the country's "collective resolve" to defeat the contagion.
April 5, 2020The call, however, is seen having an unintended consequence—a sudden drop of about 15 gigawatt of power demand across the nation, said S.N. Sahai, secretary in the nation's power ministry.
In Uttar Pradesh, the local utility plans to switch off electricity in phases to stop the surge in voltage from threatening the state's power grid and equipment, U.P. Power Transmission Corp. said in a letter sent to generators.
The country plans to switch off some of its hydropower generation capacity to deal with the sudden dip in demand, Sahai said. The power ministry, in a statement, said adequate arrangements had been made to handle the variation in demand.
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