Searing heat on Thursday pushed up the demand for power in the city and caused the peak demand to scale a new high of 5653 MW. The city’s peak demand on Thursday broke the previous high of 5642 MW that was recorded in June 2012.
Although the power distribution companies claimed to have met the high demand for power without any load shedding, consumers from West Delhi and parts of East Delhi complained of power cuts; in some areas for as long as three hours. Power cuts were also reported towards the evening, after the rain and dust storm led to the snapping of power lines.
“The demand of power in Delhi created a new record when it reached at 5653 MW at 3-38 p.m. The withdrawal of power from generating stations within Delhi was 1251 MW and withdrawal from Central Sector Stations was 4402 MW. The demand was met successfully with overdraw at that time around 210 MW,” said an official of the Power Department.
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The official said load shedding was restricted to 50- 200 MW and was carried out from 11-45 a.m. to 4 p.m. to restrict overdraw and on account of constraints in transmission and distribution system.
The surge in the power demand is attributed to the excessive heat and humidity and to the increased purchasing power of the consumers. “The previous highest demand of this season was 5315 MW on May 27. The demand of power is increasing around 8 per cent every year. It is expected that the demand may go up to 6,000 MW during this season. Purchasing power of general public has increased and they are buying more electrical gadgets, particularly air-conditioners. This is another factor for the rising electricity consumption,” said the official.
Rain and dust storm in the evening led to a drop in the temperature, which in turn brought down the demand for power. After the rain the demand fell sharply to 2,222 MW.
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