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Urbanisation, development of infrastructure and increase in the number of malls and shopping complexes will lead to an increase in the electricity energy requirement (EER) in 13 cities from 110,635 million units (MUs) in 2012 to 156,873 MUs by 2017 and further to 217,147 MUs in the agglomerations of these 13.
According to the 18th Electric Power Survey (EPS) conducted by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the mega cities with population above two million, apart from Delhi, are Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur and Indore.
By 2012, the EER of these 13 cities accounted for 12 per cent of the all-India total, whereas the total population was only 7.5 per cent. The commercial capital of Mumbai topped the list, with an EER estimated at 22,107 MUs by 2012 and expected to increase to 30,568 MUs by 2017 and then to 43,039 MUs by 2022.
The share of consumption in the domestic category is likely to remain around 35 per cent. A slight increase from 22 per cent to 25 per cent is anticipated in the commercial category and a marginal reduction from 33 to 31 per cent for the industrial category.
The survey says the increasing trend in the commercial category is primarily due to the rapid rise in consumption due to development of malls and related activities.
The drop in industrial utilisation is primarily due to a shift from manufacturing to service industries. Also noted is the development of infrastructure for street lights, water works and related activities.
The combined transmission and distribution (T&D) losses for these cities accounted for 14 per cent as against the all-India figure of 25 per cent for 2010-11, expected to reduce to 11.5 per cent for the average of all mega cities against 15.3 per cent for all of India for 2021-22. These projections for growth of demand and reduction in T&D losses are based on the development plans and other steps initiated or programmed during the next five years. CEA has emphasised the need for a matching growth of infrastructure for augmentation of the T&D network and other measures for meeting the targets to reduce losses.
