Tamil Nadu’s peak power demand crossed 19,000 MW for the first time since records have been maintained for this data, on Wednesday, April 19, touching 19,087 MW. On the same day, the daily consumption also hit another all-time high of 41.82 crore units, Electricity Minister V. Senthil Balaji said in a Twitter post on Thursday.
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With rising temperatures, the State’s power demand has been hitting new highs this summer. The previous high for peak demand was 18,882 MW and for daily consumption, it was 41.30 crore units, reached on April 18.
As per information shared by Rajesh Lakhoni, chairman and managing director of Tangedco (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corportion) on Twitter on Wednesday, the increase in power demand this year has been the highest in the past 10 years. The peak electricity demand in Tamil Nadu was expected to touch 19,000 MW in the next few days.
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As Tamil Nadu, is both industrialised and highly urbanised, it has the fourth-highest peak energy demand in the country and also has the highest energy consumption among the southern States, according to the Energy Department’s policy note for 2023-24.
In the 2022 summer period, the all-time high peak demand was 17,563 MW and the maximum daily consumption was 388.078 million units reached on April 29, 2022.
Meanwhile, Chennai has not been far behind as city’s peak electricity demand touched the 3,700 MW-mark on Thursday.
According to power managers, the highest peak demand recorded in the city was 3,723 MW in June last year. Hitting 3,700 MW in April has surprised the power managers who point out that the city normally reaches the peak demand after peak summer.
Normally the city’s peak demand would be less than 3,500 MW and would reach the peak only after the Agni Natchathiram comes to end by the end of May or June first week.