Rising temperature in national Capital has led to an increase in power demand, with 7000 Mega Watt (MW) in demand, the BSES distribution companies (Discoms) are gearing up to meet the further increased demand. In 2017, the power demand was 6526 MW.
A BSES official mentioned that arrangements have been firmed up to source adequate electricity to meet the expected power demand. “These arrangements include long term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and banking arrangements with Himachal Pradesh (425 MW), Uttar Pradesh (72 MW), Andhra Pradesh (50 MW), Sikkim (50 MW), Tamil Nadu (25 MW) and Bhutan (40 MW).
In the areas of South and West Delhi peak power demand in BRPl' which had reached 2745 MW during the summers of 2017 is expected to cross 2880 MW this year. While in BYPl area of East and Central Delhi, the power demand which had reached 1469 MW last year is expected to touch around 1670 MW, a BSES release stated.
According to the BSES, the peak power demand last summer at 6,526 MW was the highest recorded for the national capital.
“BSES discoms will get up to 665 MW of power through banking arrangements. Additionally, around 150 MW of renewal energy from Himachal Pradesh and around 20 MW from Rajasthan will further boost the power arrangements.
“In case of unforeseen contingencies because of low generation and outages of power plants, the discoms will purchase short-term power from the exchange,” it added.
The discoms have also invested substantial resources to strengthen the network for taking additional power load during summer months, the statement said.
The BSES uses a mix of in-house advanced statistical forecasting models, combined with rich domain expertise and state-of-the-art weather forecasting solutions, including those provided by IMD-POSCO, which is vital for cost effective power planning and ensuring reliable power supply to consumers at an optimal cost, it added.
Other measures by BSES discoms to ensure reliable power in summer include preventive maintenance, “thermo scanning of distribution transformers, load balancing at the sub stations” and deployment of additional manpower and mobile transformers, the company said.
Meanwhile, Tata Power Delhi Distribution (TP-DDl) has estimated a peak electricity demand of about 2000 MW this season in areas of North and North West Delhi.
TP-DDl had exported power up to 300 MW to the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh during winter of 2017-18 under banking arrangements. The same power shall be returned by these states in the summer months of 2018-19 that will help us to manage the additional demand, said a senior discom official.