Northern India is harshly affected by the severe heat waves. Delhi on Tuesday, touched a record power demand of 8,647 megawatt (mw), amid these harsh heatwaves that have raised the temperature above the normal days.
Delhi’s peak demand touched an all-time high at 3:22 pm on Tuesday, with 8,647mw breaking the record of the previous high of 8,302mv on May 29 this year. The national capital touched the 8,000 mv mark on 22 May this year for the first time. Since then the demand has touched the 8,000 mark for 8 times.
Managing Electricity Supply Amid Harsh Heatwaves
It also marked the 30th consecutive day, when Delhi’s peak power demand reached above 7,000mw. Discom (companies responsible for distributing electricity) data confirms it as the longest such streak.
“Tuesday was the 30th day in a row Delhi’s peak power demand crossed 7,000 MW. Despite this, Delhi’s power distribution network has been able to cope up with such a high demand,” said a Discom official.
On Tuesday, BSES subsidiaries BRPL and BYPL, which supply electricity to south, west, east, and central Delhi, reported meeting the peak demands of 3,750MW and 1,858MW, respectively. Meanwhile, Tata Power DDL (TPDDL), responsible for serving north and northwest Delhi, also successfully met its highest-ever peak demand of 2,446MW around the same time.
“The company has made adequate arrangements via long-term and short-term measures and will ensure seamless electricity supply amid the ongoing severe heatwave in Delhi,” said a TPDDL spokesperson.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) flagged a red alert for Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab because of the scorching heat waves that have raised the temperature above 40 degrees across these areas. Other than these states Bihar, Jharkhand and some parts of Uttarakhand are facing the same problem.
A Discom official remarked that these were unprecedented highs, with Delhi’s prior power demand record being 7,695MW on June 29, 2022. In April, Discom had forecasted the city’s peak demand to reach about 8,200MW this summer.
According to the heat index, Delhi’s temperature touched 50 degrees on Monday. It is being speculated that the average temperature in the national capital will settle at 45 degrees Celsius, which is 6 degrees higher than the average temperature of June.
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