Delhi's peak power demand clocks 7572 MW, breaks record of 2023
May 20, 2024
New Delhi [India], May 20 : Delhi's peak power demand has reached to 7572 MW on Monday, the highest ever in May breaking the record for peak power demand of 2023, which was recorded at 7438 MW.
According to an official release, the extreme heatwave continues to push Delhi's power demand northwards. As per the State Load Despatch Center (SLDC) data, the power demand recorded today is more than the peak power demand recorded in all of 2023 - 7438 MW recorded on August 22, 2023.
"This is the third-day in a row Delhi's peak power demand has crossed the 7000 MW and broken the previous all-time May high of 7070 MW, recorded on May 19, 2022," the release said.
"It is worthwhile to note that on each of the days of May 2024 so far, Delhi's peak power demand is more than that of May 2023. In the first 20 days of May last year, Delhi's peak power demand had clocked 5781 MW last year. The highest peak power demand recorded in May of 2023 was 6916 MW," the release added further.
The power demand can be attributed to weather conditions that led residents to use more air conditioning / coolers, leading to an increase in electricity consumption.
According to SLDC data, after clocking a record power demand of 7695 MW in 2022, Delhi's peak power demand during the summers of 2024 may cross the 8000 MW for the first time- reaching upto 8200 MW. Last year, Delhi's peak power demand had clocked 7438 MW.
The release also mentioned that the BSES discoms are geared-up to ensure reliable power supply to meet the power demand of 50 lakh consumers and 2 crore residents in South, West, East and Central Delhi.
"These arrangements include long term PPAs and banking arrangements with other states and deployment of latest technologies like AI and ML for predicting power demand accurately, critical for ensuring reliable power supply," the release said.
"BRPL will also procure upto 500 MW through bilateral contract. In case of any unforeseeable contingency, BSES discoms will buy short-term power from the exchange, depending on the time-slot. Adding to these efforts are the advanced load-forecasting statistical and modeling techniques, which use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to help the discom accurately forecast the power demand," it added.
