By Sethuraman N R
NEW DELHI, May 21 (Reuters) – India’s peak power demand hit a record high of 270.73 gigawatts on Thursday, with some regions in the country facing power cuts as a searing heat wave boosted demand for cooling.
Peak power demand, a measure of the maximum electricity requirement, has already exceeded New Delhi’s expectations of 270 GW, with more than a month of summer still remaining.
Vast swathes of the subcontinent are witnessing above-average heat-wave days in May due to the El Nino weather pattern, driving power demand.
India has seen four straight days of record peak power demand this week due to intense heat waves, with Thursday’s tally surpassing a record of 265.44 GW from a day earlier, data from the federal power ministry showed.
Many Indian states are likely to witness above-average heat wave days in May, the country’s weather office had predicted.
Peak demand could rise further if “heat waves continue to remain severe across major parts of the country,” said Ankit Jain, vice president and co-group head of corporate ratings at ICRA Limited.
At an all-India level, the energy deficit was at 0.2% while the peak deficit was at 0.1% in April, which could have led to power cuts, Jain said.
Localised power outages have been reported during the night in some regions, according to data from grid operator Grid-India, highlighting emerging stress in parts of the power system despite adequate overall supply during the day.
India has about 228 GW of non-fossil power capacity, but the country still uses coal for over 70% of power generation.
The intermittent nature of the renewable energy sources means that some regions could see power shortages due to a sudden spike in demand, leading to power cuts, Jain said.
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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