Maximum power demand met across India crosses 201 GW: Govt

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The maximum power demand met crossed 201 GW (GigaWatt) on April 26, the Ministry of Power said. Last year’s peak power demand met was 200.53 GW recorded on July 7, 2021.

The rising demand for electricity is expected to fuel economic growth in the country. "In the month of March this year, the growth in energy demand has been around 8.9%," the ministry said in a press statement.

As the demand for power is rising, the government is working with other stakeholders for unhindered supply, the ministry said.

Last week, brokerage firm Nomura said India's coal shortage could become another 'stagflationary shock'. The firm said that coal inventories held by the Indian power plants have nine days' worth of stock as of mid-April. These stocks are much lower than the average stock of 17 days held in April over the last five years.

Moneycontrol on April 18 reported that as many as 81 of 150 power plants running on domestic coal had critically low coal levels, while another 11 imported coal-based power plants also had critical levels of coal.

However, on April 13, the government called on power generation companies to import coal for blending up to 10 percent, and allowed “tolling” to thermal power plants to deal with rising power demand amid shortage of domestic coal.