Damaged in two days: Arvind Kejriwal takes veiled dig at Delhi govt over power outage

Arvind Kejriwal

With a sudden rise in temperatures in the national capital, Aam Aadmi Paty (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday, took a jibe at the state government, holding them accountable for "damaging" Delhi's electricity system.

"In the last ten years, we have worked hard to fix Delhi's electricity system. It is said that it takes years to fix anything, but it can be damaged in just two days," Kejriwal, the AAP chief, posted on X.

His remarks come as Delhi's demand for electricity rose to 5,462 megawatts, which "led to power cuts" in many areas of the national capital for hours. Kejriwal said there was no power outage last year during the AAP government, even when the demand rose to 8,500 MW.

"Yesterday, the peak demand in Delhi was 5462 MW. Due to this, there was no electricity for several hours in many places in Delhi last night. Last year, the peak demand reached about 8500 MW. Still, there was no power outage anywhere in Delhi during our government," Kejriwal said.

Power demand in Delhi touched 5090 megawatts (MW) at 12:31 PM on Wednesday, the highest so far this season, officials said. The demand is expected to rise further later in the day. The all-time highest power demand in the city was 8656 MW, recorded in June 2024. This summer, the peak load in Delhi is projected to reach 9000 MW this season.

On Tuesday, the power demand was recorded at 5029 megawatts (MW) at 3:30 pm. This increase in demand is due to the rising heat and increased use of cooling appliances. Along with rising electricity use, the weather in Delhi is also getting warmer. The minimum temperature recorded today was 25.6°C, which is 5.6 degrees above normal.

As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), "There has been an appreciable rise in minimum temperatures and no large change in maximum temperatures over Delhi/NCR during the past 24 hours. The Maximum and Minimum temperatures are in the range of 39 to 41°C and 24 to 26°C, respectively."

This comes after the national capital recorded its highest-ever demand of 8656 MW in 2024. BSES discoms--BSES RajdhPower Limited (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL)--are preparing to ensure uninterrupted power supply to over 50 lakh consumers and 2 crore residents across South, West, East, and Central Delhi.