The national Capital’s power demand on Thursday crossed the 6,000 Mega Watt (MW) mark for the first time in April. According to real time data of the State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC), the peak power demand was 6,000 MW at 3.31 p.m. Power demand is likely to soar further this summer, breaching the all-time high of 7,409 MW recorded on July 2, 2019.
In a statement, discoms said that Thursday’s peak power demand was 3.7 per cent more as compared to 5,769 MW on Wednesday afternoon. The demand was 4,469 MW on April 1 and has gone up by 34 per cent since then. “On four occasions this month, Delhi’s peak power demand clocked the highest-ever in April, each breaking the previous record in quick succession.
On April 19, it was 5,735 MW, 5,761 MW on April 20 and 5,786 MW on April 27 and 6,000 MW on April 28,” sources informed. “In 28 days of April this year, the peak power demand has been higher on 100 per cent of the corresponding days that of April 2021. In the first 28 days of April, Delhi’s peak power demand had clocked 4,372 MW in 2021 and 5,552 MW in 2019,” sources said.
“Peak power demand in BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) area of South and West Delhi, which had clocked 3,118 MW and 2,815 MW during the summers of 2021 and 2020 respectively, is expected to reach around 3,500 MW this summer,” sources said.
“In BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) area of East and Central Delhi, the peak power demand, which had reached 1,656 MW and 1,439 MW during the summers of 2021 and 2020 respectively, is expected to touch around 1,800 MW this year,” they said.
To meet the increasing demand the BSES is tirelessly working on strengthening its network, to avoid any inconvenience to the people.
A BSES official said, “Delhi’s ever-increasing peak power demand is expected to cross 8,200 MW this summer. Apart from adequate power, the strength of the network is also critical to ensure reliable supply. BSES discoms have ramped-up the network capacity by deploying both conventional and innovative solutions.”
“Apart from preventive maintenance, BSES also does extensive predictive checks to identify hot-spots or to pre-determine potential faults and to take remedial measures. This is done through thermal scanning, partial discharge measurement, and health assessment of power and distribution transformers.
Online load monitoring system is also in place for tracking the power transformers and 11KV feeder load, especially during the summers,” he said.
“Important steps undertaken include, load balancing at the sub-stations, setting up of dedicated teams for monitoring of complaints, deployment of mobile transformers and Quick Response Teams to tackle exigencies, establishment of war room to review complaints and their quick resolution and strengthening of the call centre,” he informed.