By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 4, 2020: The Energy Department on Saturday issued an advisory to prevent outage at grid substations and transmission lines keeping in view Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to switch off house lights at 9 pm on April 5 for nine minutes.

Modi on Friday appealed to the nation to switch off house lights at 9 pm on April 5 for nine minutes and come out on the balconies with candles, torches or mobile flashlights in a show of unity and solidarity amid the Covid-19 lockdown.

During this period the steep increase / decrease in power requirement may lead to an outage of grid substations and transmission lines.

The Odisha government has urged residents to switch off all lights gradually before 8.30 pm and to switch off the remaining lights at 9 pm to observe unity and solidarity. But they should not switch off their running appliances such as fan, refrigerator, AC etc. during this period.

Similarly, during switching on the lights after 9.09 pm, they should start with one no. Light and progressively go on increasing the lights with some time intervals.

Residentials/housing society/ residential apartments have been asked not to switch off their main supply at feeder/ main level for sudden decrease and increase of load from 9.00 pm and 9.09 pm respectively.

All the local bodies are advised not to switch off the street lights.