Power demand slump narrows marginally to 9.76% in third week of June

Intense heat wave during the third week of June has helped further narrowing of power demand slump to 9.76 percent from 10.5 percent in the previous week, showing commercial and industrial activities are yet to reach optimum levels.

The slump in power demand in the first week of the June was recorded at 19.7 percent. However, the decline so far is still higher than 8.8 percent recorded in May.

In the third week of June, the power demand has improved due to intensifying heat wave, and it hovered around 162 GW from June 15 onwards, and further shot up to 164.64 GW on Friday (June 19), as per the power ministry data.

The peak power demand met stood at 163.30 gigawatts (GW) on June 11 and remained slightly lower at 158.02GW on June 12, 157.79 GW on 13th and 156.88 GW on 14th.

The peak power demand of 164.64 GW this week is 9.76 percent less than 182.45 (GW) recorded in June last year.

The peak power demand met ranged between 162.35 GW on June 15 and 164.64 GW on June 19.

It swung between 138.28 GW on June 4 and 146.53 GW on June 6. Thus, the peak power demand met for the first week was 146.53 GW, which was 19.7 percent less than the 182.45 GW recorded in June last year.

The peak power demand met slump narrowed from 19.7 percent in the first week of June to 10.5 percent in the second week of this month.

Similarly, the slump in demand further narrowed slightly to 9.76 percent in the third week of June.

The peak power demand met is the highest energy supply during the day across the country.

In May, it stood at 166.42 GW (on May 26), which was 8.82 percent less than 182.55 GW in the corresponding month a year ago.

Similarly, the peak power demand met in April stood at 132.77 GW, 25 percent less than 176.81 GW in the year-ago period.

Therefore, the power demand slump narrowed down to 8.8 percent in May from 25 percent in April this year.

An industry expert said power demand can rise closer to normal levels of the previous year with further increase in commercial and industrial activities.

The government started easing the lockdown imposed on March 25 for economic activities from April 20.

However, the demand from the commercial and industrial sector is still to achieve its optimum levels as there is still a power demand slump of 9.76 percent despite intense heat waves in the country, an industry expert said.