Delhi’s peak power load crossed 6,000 megawatt (MW) on Wednesday for the first time this season.  Discoms BRPL and BYPL successfully met the peak power demand of 2547 and 1386 MW respectively. Peak power demand in BRPL’ area of South and West Delhi, which had reached 3081 MW during the summers of 2018, is expected to touch around 3200 MW this year.

 In BYPL’ area of East and Central Delhi, the peak power demand which had reached 1561 MW last year is expected to touch around 1640 MW. This power demand may further increase during the night hours, the official said. 

Meanwhile, Tata Power Delhi Distribution also met the high peak power demand of 1690 MW successfully without any network constraint. Last year, the highest peak demand registered in Tata Power-DDL’s area was 1967 MW.

“We have always strived for providing better services to our consumers. We are expecting the peak power demand to reach 2150 MW in our area this summer, said Sanjay Banga, CEO of Tata Power-DDL, adding that to meet this demand, we have long-term tie-ups amounting to around 2000 MW and other arrangements and up to 500 MW including renewable power, through power import banking/ bilateral imports with other states to ensure regular supply and to take care of any contingency requirements.

The BSES official said that an arrangement have been firmed up by BSES discoms to source adequate electricity to meet the power demand of over 42 lakhs consumers. These arrangements include long term PPAs and banking arrangements with other states including Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Manipur and Sikkim, he added.

“BSES discoms will get up to 865 MW (BRPL 550 MW, BYPL 315 MW) of power through banking arrangements. Apart from this, it will get 100 MW of wind power from June 2019 to satisfy the need of its consumers. Of this 50 MW is already being received, he said, adding that in case of unforeseen contingencies because of low generation and outages in power plants, the discoms will purchase short-term power from the exchange.

 To strengthen the distribution network, BSES discoms invested over Rs 800 crore (BRPL ~ Rs 525 crore, BYPL Rs 300 crore) in FY 2018-2019 and ramped-up the network capacity by around 750 MVA.  BSES discoms also installed (new) and augmented around 600 distribution transformers and laid over 650 Kms of cable to strengthen the network.

 “BSES uses a mix of advanced statistical forecasting models, combined with state-of-the-art weather forecasting solutions, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning and rich domain expertise provided by IMD-POSCO to meet power challenges and to get a grip on so many varied and dynamic variables,” he said.

This accurate day ahead, intra-day and medium term demand forecasting is vital for optimal and cost effective planning in ensuring reliable power supply to consumers at an optimal cost, the official said. Additionally, BSES is also working in tandem with generation and transmission companies to ensure that the entire generation, transmission and distribution system is aligned to meet the summer load, he added. 

For the benefit of the civic agencies and ‘Residents Welfare Associations’ (RWA), BSES has launched ‘Dial n Dig’, a dedicated 24/ 7 helpline number 1800 3000 9707  for South and West Delhi and 39997376 for Central and East Delhi. 

Delhi’s burgeoning peak power demand is expected to cross 7400 Mega Watt (MW) this summer, power distribution companies have also ramped-up the network capacity by deploying both conventional and innovative solutions to insure uninterrupted supply.