PowerWatch | India's peak power demand hits record 220 GW amid intense heatwave

PowerWatch

A heatwave across several parts of India pushed the country's peak power demand to a record high of 220 gigawatts (GW) on May 17, according to data sourced from the power ministry.

The demand on May 17 exceeded the previous high of 215.88 GW, which was met on April 18 this year when large parts of the country were experiencing similar heatwave conditions. In 2022, the highest peak demand met was 212 GW on June 10.

On May 16, the peak power demand met was 215.11 GW. The peak demand deficit on May 16, which represents the demand that couldn't be met, was 314 megawatts (MW). The peak demand shortage for May 17 was not available at the time of publishing this report.

The ministry expects peak demand to touch 230GW this summer and Power Minister RK Singh told Moneycontrol the country was prepared to meet the demand.

Also read: MC Exclusive: Well prepared to handle the next spurt in power demand: RK Singh, Union minister for power.

The summer of 2022 was marked by intense heatwaves that pushed up electricity demand from industries as well as households and a coal shortage led to outages in several parts of the country.

To avoid a repeat this season, the Power Ministry has taken measures such as mandating all imported coal-based thermal plants to operate at full capacity.

Also read: Will India face another power crisis this summer?

The country’s coal stock situation continues to be “manageable” as of now, according to the data. Of the 165 domestic coal-based thermal power plants in the country, 30 had critical coal stocks as of May 16. Last year at this time, the number of such plants was around 96-110. About 33 million tonnes (MT) of coal are stocked at the thermal power plants.

Data showed that between April 1 and May 17, the daily peak demand breached the 200-GW mark on 15 days. With the rise in overall demand, trade volumes in the power exchanges, except the high-price segment, have also increased.

The average market clearing price on May 17 at the time of the record high peak demand was Rs 5.71 per unit. The power exchange was left with a surplus power of 2,807 MW during the peak demand which was between 3-3:15 pm.