PowerWatch | Power demand may breach previous high this week

PowerWatch

The country met a peak power demand of 218 gigawatts (GW) on May 19,  217.1 GW on May 20 and 207.93 GW on May 21. The demand, which could not be met on these days, or the peak demand deficit, stood at 652 megawatts (MW), 448 MW and 245 MW, respectively.

As several parts of the country are now experiencing heatwave conditions, the country's peak power demand that will be met may breach the previous high this week. On May 17, India met its highest-ever peak power demand at 221 GW. The deficit on that day was 1,777 MW.

The demand on May 17 exceeded the previous high of 215.88 GW, which was met on April 18 when large parts of the country were experiencing similar heatwave conditions.

In 2022, the highest peak demand met was 212 GW on June 10.

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

Last year, the summer season witnessed intense heatwaves, which pushed up electricity demand from industries as well as households, and coupled with a coal shortage led to outages in several parts of the country.

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

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, 31 had critical coal stocks as of May 21. 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.