Energy demand stays increased in 1st week, crosses report peak of Feb’20

India’s peak power demand met or the highest supply in a day has remained higher in the first week of February till Friday and surpassed the record high supply of 176.38 GW for February last year, indicating robust growth in electricity consumption in the country. According to the power ministry data, peak power demand met was recorded at 187.71GW on February 1, 188.15 GW on February 2; 188.11 GW on February 3; 183.81GW on February 4 and 184.34GW on February 5.

The peak power demand met in this month so far is higher than the monthly record power demand met of 176.38GW for February 2020. Experts opined that the data clearly indicates all likelihood of high electricity consumption growth in the month of February this year.

They are of the view that if power supply is higher in the first five days of February than the monthly record peak a year ago, then electricity consumption would not only register high growth but would remain at much higher level than that in 2020. Peak power demand had touched an all-time high of 189.64 GW on January 30, 2021, breaching the previous record high of 188.45 GW recorded on 28th January.

Last month, Power Minister R K Singh had exuded confidence that power demand will cross the 200 GW mark soon. “The power demand and supply surged to a new high of 1,88,452 MW at 9:42 am on 28th January 2021. The rate at which we are going, we shall cross 2,00,000 MW very soon,” he had said.

On January 20, power demand had touched a high of 187.3 GW. All-India power demand had also touched a high of 182.89 GW on December 30 last year. The rising power demand shows revival in economic activities leading to higher commercial and industrial demand, which was affected due to the pandemic.

The government had imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19.  Power demand started declining from April as economic activities were disrupted due to COVID-19. The pandemic affected power demand for five months in a row from April to August 2020.

The demand recovered from September onwards. Peak power demand met grew at 1.7 per cent in September, 3.4 per cent in October, 3.5 per cent in November, 7.3 per cent in December and nearly 11 per cent in January.