Delhi's peak power demand at record 6,998 MW, BSES gears up

Peak power demand in Delhi broke all records on Monday to touch the highest mark of 6,998 MW, and to meet the unprecedented demand, the two BSES distribution companies (discoms) in the capital said they have taken measures like long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and banking arrangements with various states, as well as with neighbouring Bhutan.

A BSES statement said that Monday's figure, which broke the previous record of 6,934 MW created last month on June 8, marks an increase of over 200 per cent over the peak power demand of 2,879 MW in 2002.

"The peak power demand in BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd's (BRPL) area of south and west Delhi, today (Monday), clocked 3,031 MW and 1,555 MW in BSES Yamuna Power Ltd's (BYPL) area of central and east Delhi," it said.

"The fact that the city's power demand is consistently crossing the 6,500 MW mark shows the robustness of the capital's distribution and transmission system, which has been able to measure up."

The BSES discoms have invested substantial resources to strengthen the network for taking additional power load during summer months, the statement said.

"During the year, BSES discoms have invested heavily to further improve and augment this network by adding new grid substations, power transformers, laying new feeders, shifting overhead lines underground and setting-up new distribution transformers among others," it said.

"BSES discoms continued to invest heavily in the network and deployed a capex of over Rs 900 crore during FY 2017-2018. At the back of several technological deployments, capacity addition is of over 900 MVA," it added.

According to the discom, BRPL and BYPL have made firm arrangements to source adequate electricity to meet the power demand of its 40 lakh consumers in the capital. These arrangements include long-term PPAs and banking arrangements with other states including Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Bhutan.

"BSES discoms will get upto 665 MW of power through banking arrangements. Additionally, around 150 MW of renewal energy from Himachal Pradesh and around 20 MW from Rajasthan will further boost the power arrangements.

"In case of unforeseen contingencies because of low generation and outages of power plants, the discoms will purchase short-term power from the exchange," it said.

--IANS

bc/vd