After a period of lower-than-normal demand due to unseasonal rains, India's power demand has once again begun to surge. On May 11, the country's peak power demand hit 202.6 gigawatts (GW), up from 198.3 GW that was met the day before on May 10.
The power demand breached the 200 GW mark after 20 days. The last time it was on April 21, when the demand met was 204.7 GW. Data showed that between April 1 and May 11, the daily peak demand breached the 200-GW mark on 10 days. With the rise in overall demand, trade volumes in the power exchanges, except the high-price segment, have also increased.
The demand that could not be met on May 11, or the peak demand deficit, decreased to 496 megawatts (MW) from 512 MW on May 10. The share of renewable energy sources (wind, solar and hybrid) in the total energy generation on May 11 was 11.05 percent. The share of renewable energy along with hydropower, nuclear and others was 20.59 percent, according to data.
Power demand is expected to further climb in the coming week as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said a heatwave is making a comeback in most parts of India after days of pleasant weather. The IMD stated that parts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and central India are expected to record temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius. Delhi and its neighboring areas are likely to witness temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.
On April 18, when large parts of the country were reeling under heat-wave conditions, the peak electricity demand that was met was 215.88 GW (215,882 MW), a record high so far. In 2022, the highest peak demand that was met was 212 GW (211,856 MW) on June 10.
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. The ministry expects peak demand to touch 230 GW this summer and Power Minister RK Singh told Moneycontrol that the country was prepared to meet the demand.
The coal stocks' situation continues to be "manageable", as of now, data showed. Of the 165 domestic coal-based thermal power plants in the country, 28 had critical stocks as of May 10. Last year at this time, the number of such plants was around 96. About 33 million tonnes (MT) of coal are stocked at thermal power plants.
Also read: Coal prices likely to be hiked as CIL prepares to revise wages: Sources.
Coal stock is said to be at a critical level when power plants have less than 25 percent of the normative 26 days of fuel with them.
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