As heat waves intensify throughout the city and the suburbs, the residents are breaking all records for power consumption. With so many people relying on air conditioners and coolers to remain cool, the power grids are already being strained to the maximum this summer.
According to statistics available from the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board, electricity worth Rs 2 crore is consumed in the city every day. Sources in the MPEB said that the daily consumption of electricity in Gwalior alone is 43 lakh units. This is 50 per cent more than the normal consumption. It is estimated that the burning up of electricity will break all previous records in the coming days.
The lack of programs and planning to reduce the power consumption through controls and energy pricing and the absence of consumption based energy billing are imposing enormous environmental as well as economic costs. It has been observed that the day peak builds up in the afternoon and the second peak, around 10 in the night. There is less consumption of energy during the morning hours due to slight breeze and cooler atmosphere.
As the power consumption threatens to break all barriers, the officials in the Electricity Board are engaged in Energy Auditing so as to give a positive direction to preventive maintenance and to identify the lines that are running on loss. According to sources in the Board this auditing will also help to identify those who steal electricity.
Speaking to media persons, Akshay Khare, the City GM of the MPEB said that there are 2.5 lakh consumers in the city and around 43 lakh unit of electricity is being consumed every day. He added that with the heat waves expected to rise further the consumption too will go up.