PremiumWith the mercury rising, Delhi’ peak electricity demand on Thursday touched 7.02 gigawatt (GW), the second highest peak power demand ever recorded for the national capital.
Delhi’ highest peak power demand of 7.40 GW was recorded on 2 July 2019. This is for the third time that Delhi’ power demand crossed 7 GW and comes in the backdrop of India’ peak electricity demand touching a new high of 191.24 GW on Wednesday, as summer temperature rose.
The last all time high peak power demand recorded for the country was of 189.64 GW on 31 January this year. The new record was set at 12.46 pm on 30 June in the backdrop of a large part of northwest India still awaiting the monsoon rains.
India’s peak electricity demand fell during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with commercial and industrial demand taking a hit after many factories closed. However, domestic consumption, which generates comparatively lower tariffs, went up. The demand which had since revived fell again during the second wave.
“Today afternoon (July 1) at 3:30 pm, Delhi’s peak power demand, not only clocked this season's highest (till now) of 7026 MW, but also crossed the season’s previous peak of 6921 MW, recorded just a day earlier on June 30," BSES said in a statement on Thursday.
BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL), cater to around 4.4 million customers in the national capital. The other discoms in Delhi are Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd., Military Engineering Services (for Delhi Cantonment) and the New Delhi Municipal Corporation.
“Infact, this is only the third year in Delhi’s power history that the peak power demand has crossed 7,000 MW. In 2018, the peak power demand had crossed the 7000 MW for the first time, clocking 7016 MW. In 2019, it peaked at 7409 MW," the BSES statement said.
“Infact this year, Delhi’s peak power demand has already crossed last year’s peak of 6314 MW on 6 occasions (July 1, June 30, 29, 28, 24, 23)," the BSES statement added.
This assumes importance given that energy consumption, especially electricity and refinery products, usually linked to overall demand in the economy. Of India’s total electricity demand load pattern, industrial and agricultural consumption account for 41.16% and 17.69%, respectively. Commercial electricity consumption accounts for 8.24%.
This comes at a time when India’ thermal power projects’ operating performance is set to improve and bears good news for coal-fuelled power projects that were facing low-capacity utilization due to muted demand.
This assumes importance given that India’s power sector is the largest consumer of coal in the country, with CIL being the largest coal miner. Coal fuelled electricity generation remains the mainstay of India’ power mix. Of India’s installed power generation capacity of 382.15 GW, the coal fuelled projects account for 53% or 202.67 GW.
“So far in the current fiscal coal-based power generation is yet to get into a steady rhythm having a bearing on our supplies to power sector. After an encouraging spurt in April, coal fired electricity generation slowed down in May. It started accelerating during the last ten days of June again," state run Coal India Ltd (CIL) said in a statement on Thursday.
This also comes at a time when the world’ largest coal miner registered a 33% increase in fuel offtake to 160.4 million tonnes (MTs) for the first quarter of the current financial year ending 30 June. India has the world’s fourth largest reserves and is the second-largest producer of coal.
“Even as coal demand from power sector is vacillating, Coal India’s (CIL) overall coal off-take has risen up to 160.4 Million Tonnes (MTs) during the first quarter of the current fiscal ending June’21. This represents 33% growth compared to 120.8 MTs of same quarter of last year, the increase in volumes terms being a robust 39.6 MTs," CIL said in a statement.
Of CIL’ coal production target of 670 mt for the current financial year, the demand from the power sector is expected to account for around 545 mt. India’s overall coal requirement is expected to go up to 1,123 mt by 2023 from the present level of 700 mt.
“CIL produced 124 MTs during the first three months of the ongoing fiscal logging 2.4% growth compared to 121 MTs same quarter last year," the CIL statement said.
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