With the rising heat and humidity, the demand of power created a new record on Thursday when peak power demand of 6,260 MW was recorded in the afternoon. Prior to this, the highest demand was recorded on May 20 this year when it reached 6,188 MW. Notably, this year the peak power demand crossed the 6,000 MW mark for the first time in history.
“It (peak power demand) was recorded as 6,260 MW at 3.29 pm. This is the all time high demand of power recorded in Delhi…Till last summer, peak demand of Delhi was 5,925 MW in the year 2014…If the heat and humidity continued to persist, the demand of power may go up to 6,500MW during the current summers,” Rishi Raj Bhati, Public Relations Officer of Delhi Transco limited (DTl) said.
The demand of power in Delhi is almost double the demand in Mumbai and three times more than the demand in Chennai and Kolkata respectively. The demand of the entire North-East region is also less than half of the demand of the national Capital.
The power sector of Delhi is more than a century old. It was started with the establishment of 2 MW power generation with diesel at lahori Gate in Old Delhi area in 1905. The demand of power has been rising in Delhi with every passing year.
Rishi Raj Bhati said to keep pace with the rising demand, DTl has been increasing its infrastructure. “With the present infrastructure, Delhi Transco can easily meet the demand up to 9,000 MW. However, since the discoms are not paying the legitimate dues, DTl is finding it very difficult to expand the network for future requirement as well as carrying out day to day maintenance,” he said adding that the Reliance owned Discoms (BRPl and BYPl) owe more than Rs2,000 crore to DTl and have not been paying despite the directions of the Supreme Court.
“Whereas DTl employees are committed to provide uninterrupted supply to Delhi citizens but ever increasing demand and limitation of resources can for sometimes affect the supply,” he added.