For decades, India's power engineers had a dream: "One Nation. One Grid. One Frequency." At the start of this year, that vision was realized. India finally has a nationwide power system.
On Dec. 31, India commissioned the last link, a high-voltage transmission line between Raichur and Solapur, connecting the southern regional grid to the four other grids serving the north, east, west and northeast, which had been successively integrated since 1991.
The whole of India's electricity system was synchronized and started to function as one giant machine. Unification is a powerful symbol of national identity and modernization as well as enabling the system to operate more efficiently.