Delhi’s power demand crosses 7,000 MW mark, at year’s peak

The previous high for the month was 6,780MW, on May 13 this year. This is the fifteenth time in the 20 days of May that the national capital’s peak power demand has crossed the 6,000MW-mark, officials said.

The scorching heat pushed Delhi’s peak power demand to 7,070 megawatts (MW) on Thursday, the year’s highest so far and a record for May, largely due to an increase in the usage of cooling appliances in view of the higher-than-normal daily temperatures, power discom officials said.

On July 2, 2021, the city’s peak power demand was clocked at 7,323MW, data showed. (Bloomberg)

The previous high for the month was 6,780MW, on May 13 this year. This is the fifteenth time in the 20 days of May that the national capital’s peak power demand has crossed the 6,000MW-mark, officials said. The peak demand on Friday evening was recorded at 6,943MW, which is also likely to shoot past 7,000MW around midnight.

This was to be expected as the mercury shot up across the Capital on Thursday after a three-day spell of relatively cooler weather, with parts of Delhi touching the 46-degree mark, according to the India Meteorological Department. Safdarjung, Delhi’s base station for weather, recorded a maximum temperature of 43.6 degrees Celsius – three degrees above normal-- as both Mungeshpur and Najafgarh recorded highs of 46.3 degrees Celsius, making them the hottest locations across the city, followed by Pitampura at 45.8 degrees Celsius.

To be sure, Delhi has been setting new peak power demand records since 2018, when it first breached the 7,000MW-mark. This year, power utilities have projected the peak demand to breach 8,000MW. So far, Delhi’s all-time highest peak demand was on July 2, 2019, when it touched 7,409 MW.

On July 2, 2021, the city’s peak power demand was clocked at 7,323MW, data showed.

“This is the fourth year in Delhi’s history when the peak power demand has breached the 7,000MW,” said a discom official on Friday.

A BSES spokesperson said the discom successfully met the peak power demand on Thursday. “The strength of the network is critical to ensure reliable power supply. BSES discoms have ramped up the network capacity by deploying both conventional and innovative solutions,” he said.

The discom has taken various measures, including preventive maintenance, online load monitoring, teams for monitoring complaints, deployment of mobile transformers, quick response teams, to ensure uninterrupted power supply, he added.

According to discom officials, Delhi’s peak power demand has increased by 10% since May 1 and over 58% since April 1 this year.

Delhi’s peak power demand in May had not crossed the 6,000MW-mark in 2021 and 2020. In 2019, it had crossed the 6,000MW-mark only thrice — May 29 (6,020MW), May 30 (6,240MW) and May 31 (6,461MW). With early onset of summer this year, in April, the peak power demand was higher the previous month and was 100% more than the demand seen in April in 2021, 2020 and 2019, discom officials said.