India's power demand has been gradually increasing over the last four days, with the country meeting a peak demand of 196.2 gigawatts (GW) on April 27, data accessed by Moneycontrol showed. The demand, which could not be met on the day, or the peak demand deficit, stood at 98 megawatts (MW).
If the gradual climb continues, India's power demand would cross 200 GW again in the coming week. Data analysed by Moneycontrol showed that between April 1 to April 27, the daily peak demand breached the 200 GW mark in 9 days. With the rise in the overall demand, trade volumes in the power exchanges, except the high-price segment, have also increased.
Also read: High Price Day Ahead Market at power exchanges had no trade for over a month since launch
Late last week, several parts of the country were lashed by unseasonal rain, which caused damage to the wheat crop, but brought respite from soaring temperatures.
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 230GW this summer and Power Minister RK Singh said the country was prepared to meet the demand.
This week, however, a steep surge in demand did not happen as a western disturbance kept temperatures low in several parts of the country.
The story so far
On April 19, the peak power demand that was met was 214.92 GW (214,924 MW), while the peak shortage was 1,418 MW. While the numbers for April 18 are mentioned above, the demand that was met on April 17 was 211 GW (210,829 MW), while the peak shortage was 1,592 MW.
Also read: Renewables contribute 11% to meet India's current power demand; share of coal at 77%
Through the week, the peak demand that was met continued to fall. On April 20, the peak demand that was met fell to 211.8 GW (211,804 MW) but the shortfall was only 55 MW. The next day, the demand met slipped to 205 GW (204,777 MW) and the shortage was 57 MW. On April 22, the peak demand met was 198.2 GW (198,272 MW) and the peak shortage rose to 884 MW. On April 23, the demand met came down to 184.4 GW (184,407 MW) but the shortage too narrowed to 34 MW.
However, on April 24, it being a Monday, the peak demand that was met rose to 191.9 GW (191,917 MW) after a gradual decline for six consecutive days. On April 25, the demand that was met marginally increased again to 194.3 GW (194,367 MW). On April 26, this slightly rose to 195.8 GW (195,821 MW) and on April 27, it was 196.2 GW (196,240 MW).
The coal stock situation is “manageable”, as of now, data accessed by Moneycontrol showed. Of the 165 domestic coal-based thermal power plants in the country, 32 had critical stocks. Last year at this time, the number of such plants was around 96.
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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