NEW DELHI: As a cold wave ushered in the New Year and the mercury plummeted to this winter’s lowest at 1.1 degree Celsius, the peak power demand of the capital on the other hand shot up on January 1 and breached the 5,000 MW mark for the first time this season.
Delhi’s peak power demand clocked the season’s highest of this winter at 5,021 MW on Friday. “On December 1, 2020, Delhi’s peak power demand was 3,504 MW. Since then, the city’s peak power demand has increased by over 43%. And if we compare it with the peak power demand on November 1, the city’s peak power demand has increased by nearly 60%,” a BSES spokesman said.
“The highest peak power demand in December 2020 was 4,671, recorded on December 30. In just two days, it increased by over 7% to 5,021 MW,” he said. On January 1, 2020, however, the peak power demand was 5,226 MW.
The power discoms expect Delhi’s peak power demand to go up to 5,480 MW this winter, surpassing last year’s winter demand. In the winter of 2019-2020, the demand had peaked at 5,343 MW. The peak power demand in Delhi during winter has been going up gradually. The peak power demand recorded in the winter of 2015-16 was 4,125 MW, which increased to 4,168 MW in the next winter and to 4,511 MW after that but dipped to 4,472 MW in the winter of 2018-19.
“On December 16, 2020, Delhi’s peak power demand crossed 4,000 MW for the first-time this winter. In fact, the city’s peak power demand in the first 18 days of December this year (4,636 MW) was higher than the corresponding peak power demand of last December (4,312 MW),” he said. “That’s not all. Delhi’s peak power demand in December 2020 surpassed the peak power demand of December 2019 on 10 corresponding days. It is expected to increase further in the coming days if the winter chill continues,” he said.
In November 2020 too, Delhi’s peak power demand surpassed the peak power demand on 15 corresponding days of October 2019.
Discom Tata Power Delhi Distribution (Tata Power-DDL) said that the company successfully met the record peak power demand of 1,568 MW in its area in north Delhi without any network constraint and power outage as Delhi clocked this season’s record high of 5,021 MW.
“Tata Power-DDL is fully committed to ensure the highest level of efficacy to its consumers ensuring uninterrupted power supply. We have made surplus arrangements of up to 200 MW power over and above the expected peak demand and it will also cater to contingencies,” Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO, Tata Power-DDL said. “Besides this, we are also using a mix of smart technologies like AI and Machine Learning for better load forecasting to provide reliable power supply,” he said.
“Ensuring reliable supply in any season is as much the function of proper power arrangements as also accurate demand forecast and robust distribution network. On all these aspects, BSES discoms are fully geared to ensure adequate power availability during the winter months,” the BSES spokesperson said. “The back-bone of BSES’ power-supply arrangements during the winter-months includes long-term agreements from power-plants, including Hydro and Delhi based gas fuelled generating stations.
“Apart from these, BSES discoms are using avenues like “Banking”, “Reserve Shutdown”, “Power Exchange” and ensuring sufficient “Spinning Reserves” to dispose of surplus power as well as ensuring reliable power supply, as also making arrangements to get power during summer months,” he said. “In case of any unforeseeable contingency, BSES discoms will buy short-term power from the exchange which is available at economical rates,” he said.