Delhi's peak power demand touched to 7,241 MW megawatt (MW) on Monday, highest ever recorded in the history of the city. Power discoms BRPL, BYPL and Tata- power claimed to have met the peak power demand of 3,132, 1,629 and 2,014 MW in their areas respectively.
"Today, the distribution network in Delhi has become so strengthen that even after such load there was no supply related problems happened. No news of breakdown from anywhere reported. I am happy that people of Delhi are getting affordable electricity 24 hours," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
Last year, peak power demand had clocked 3,081 MW and 1,561 MW in the respective area of BRPL and BYPL. Power demand broke the previous record of 7,016 MW recorded on July 10, 2018. Delhi's peak power demand during the summers of 2019 may clock 7,400 MW — an increase of over 250 per cent over the peak power demand of 2,879 MW in 2002.
A senior discom official said that Delhi's power demand crossed the 6,000 MW for the first time in 2016 (6,216 MW on July 1). In June 2019, Delhi's peak power demand crossed 6,000 MW on 24 days. The fact that the city's power demand is consistently crossing the 6,000 MW shows the robustness of the capital's distribution and transmission system, which has been able to measure up.
"This summer season, the peak demand in Delhi is increasing with each passing day. We are expecting the Delhi peak demand to touch 7,500 MW and Tata Power-DDL's to cross 2,250 MW in the coming days. However, we have made adequate arrangements of power of up to 2,500 MW, along with contingency planning, through long-term tie-ups and power banking arrangements, and upgraded network to ensure regular supply in our area of distribution." said Sanjay Banga, CEO, and Tata Power-DDL.
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.
Also, in order 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.