Delhi's Power Demand Peaks At 6,780 MW, Season's Highest So Far: Discoms

With the day temperature spiralling up with each passing day, Delhi's power demand shot to 6,780 MW on Thursday -- the highest this summer so far, discom officials said.

Realtime data from State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) showed that the peak power demand of the city was 6,780 MW at 3.26 PM on Thursday.

The highest ever peak power demand in Delhi was 7,695 MW in the summer of 2022. Last year, the highest it touched was 7,438 MW.

The distribution companies, or discoms, said Delhi's peak power demand this summer may cross the 8,000 MW for the first time and may reach up to 8,200 MW.

A BSES spokesperson said that the BRPL and BYPL discoms of the company successfully met the peak power demand in their respective areas. The peak power demand in South and West Delhi, which had clocked 3,250 MW and 3,389 MW during the summer of 2023 and 2022 respectively, is expected to reach around 3,679 MW this summer, he said.

On the other hand, in East and Central Delhi, catered to by BYPL, the peak power demand, which had reached 1,752 MW and 1,670 MW during the summer of 2022 and 2023, is expected to touch around 1,857 MW this year, he added.

The high power demand can be attributed to weather conditions that led residents to use more air conditioning equipments leading to an increase in electricity consumption.

The discom officials said air conditioning can contribute to 30-50 per cent of a domestic or commercial establishment's yearly energy expense.

It is worth noting that on each day of May so far, Delhi's peak power demand is more than that of May 2023.

In the first 16 days of May last year, Delhi's peak power demand had clocked 5,781 MW, discom officials said.

The weather department has estimated the maximum temperature to touch 42 degrees on Thursday and up to 45 degrees on Saturday.

The weather's impact on the power demand was clearly visible in Delhi even in April this year in comparison to April of 2023, the discom officials said.

"In April 2024, Delhi's peak power demand ranged between 3,809 MW and 5,447 MW. As opposed to this, Delhi's peak power demand during April 2023 ranged between 3,388 MW and 5,422 MW," they said.

The BSES spokesperson said that the two discoms of the company are geared-up to ensure there is enough power supply to meet the power demand of around 50 lakh consumers.

These arrangements include long term power purchase agreements and banking arrangements with other states and deployment of latest technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict power demand accurately, he said.

Around 2,100 MW of green power will play an important role in ensuring reliable power supply, he added.

A spokesperson of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) said the discom successfully met the summer peak demand of 1,982 MW, the highest requirement so far in this summer season, ensuring uninterrupted power supply without any network constrain and power outages.

On their part, BRPL and BYPL successfully met the peak power demand of 2,861 MW and 1,488 MW respectively. 

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