Scorching heat wave in Delhi pushed the power demand to 8,000 MW on Wednesday which is the highest ever in the history of the national capital, according to the State Load Despatch Centre(SLDC)data. It added the demand broke the record created a day earlier. This is the fifth day in a row Delhi’s peak power demand has crossed the 7000 MW and broken the previous all time May high of 7070 MW, recorded on May 19, 2022.
On their part, BRPL and BYPL successfully met the peak power demand in their respective areas. Tata Power-DDL served an all-time peak power demand of 2,268 MW without any outages and network constraints, according to its spokesperson.
Delhi Power Minister Atishi on Wednesday said the city government successfully met the peak power demand of 7,717 MW on May 21 without any power outages. She further stressed that even if the figures touch 8000 MW in the coming months, they will take all measures to meet it. Addressing a press conference, Atishi said despite peak demand, there was no problem with the power supply.
“Despite that peak demand, we are giving 24-hour electricity. There is no load shedding and no blackouts. I would like to recall that in 2014 when Delhi was reeling under a heatwave, the peak power demand had reached 5925 MW. At that time, there were six to eight-hour-long blackouts,” she said. She congratulated the power department, the three discoms and their employees for successfully meeting the power demand.
On Tuesday afternoon, the power demand surged to an all-time high of 7717 MW, breaking the previous record of 7695 MW set on June 29, 2022. Remarkably, just hours later at 23:01, this record was surpassed again, reaching 7726 MW In fact, during April 2024, the peak power demand was higher on 83% of the corresponding days compared to April 2023, with a difference of up to 32%. This disparity highlights the profound impact that weather can have on a city’s power consumption patterns.The power demand can be attributed to weather conditions that led residents to use more air conditioning / coolers, leading to an increase in electricity consumption. It is interesting to know you know, air conditioning can contribute to 30-50% of a household’s or company’s yearly energy expense?
