Delhi breaches 8,300 MW mark first time as power demand soars amid heatwave

Delhi's peak power demand reached the all-time high of 8,302 MW on Wednesday afternoon as the city logged its highest-ever temperature of 52.3 degrees Celsius at the Mungeshpur weather station.

Officials said this is the first time in the city's history that the power demand has breached the 8300-MW mark and the mercury crossed 52 degrees Celsius.

Power distribution companies had estimated the demand to peak at 8,200 MW this summer, but according to the State Load Dispatch Centre, Delhi, it clocked 8,302 MW at 15:36:32 hours on Wednesday.

The previous peak power demand was recorded just a week ago, when it touched 8,000 MW on May 22.

The city has been braving a prolonged spell of heatwave conditions with the maximum day temperatures in many parts including Najafgarh, Mungeshpur and Narela touching almost 50 degrees Celsius.

Delhi's demand usually peaks during June-end and early July, a trend that was broken last year when it peaked in August, according to discom officials.

A discom official said, "Air conditioning can contribute to 30-50 per cent of a household or commercial establishment's yearly energy expense."

With the peak demand reaching 8302 MW mark on Wednesday, it was the 12th day in a row when it has crossed the 7000-MW mark.

Until previous year, the all-time high peak power demand of city was 7695 MW, recorded on June 29, 2022, discom officials said.

Last year's peak power demand was 7,438 MW.

A BSES spokesperson said BRPL and BYPL discoms successfully met as the city's power demand on Wednesday.

He said around 2,100 MW of green power will play an important role in powering Delhi as its demand rises in the summer months this year.

The BSES discoms invested substantial resources to strengthen the network and undertook extensive preventive checks like thermo scanning to help identify potential hot-spots and take remedial measures to prevent any snags, he said.

The fact that the Delhi's power distribution network has been able to sustain this prolonged high demand for power shows its robustness, discom officials said.

A Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) spokesperson said that the persistent heat wave across North India is leading to a sharp demand surge for electricity in the national capital.

"At TPDDL's end we successfully met our highest-ever peak power demand of 2339 MW and have made sufficient arrangements to meet the demand," she said.

Delhi on Wednesday recorded its highest ever maximum temperature of 46.8 degrees Celsius in last 79 years. Some areas registered extreme weather conditions with mercury shooting to 52.9 degrees Celsius.