India’s peak power demand may surpass the projected 384 GW mark and cross even a new level of 400 gigawatt (GW) by 2031-32, Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal said on July 2.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

India’s peak power demand may surpass the projected 384 GW mark and cross even a new level of 400 gigawatt (GW) by 2031-32, Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal said on July 2.

Speaking at the CII-Smart Metering Conference, he said that peak power demand had already reached the 250 GW mark in May.

“The way power demand has grown in some states in the last two years, the demand will touch 384 GW and may easily cross 400 GW by 2031-32. For this we must have an installed (power generation) capacity of 900 GW,” Mr. Agarwal said.

The government projection for this year’s peak power demand was 260 GW.

Later speaking to reporters, the secretary said the anticipated 260 GW peak demand is expected to reach by September.

At the onset of the monsoon, the peak power demand has been showing a downward trend over the last few days.

As per official data, the peak power demand was at 209 GW on Monday.

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| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

The country’s power consumption grew by over 16% to 151.66 billion units in August this year compared to that of the same month last year mainly due to increase usage of cooling appliances during sultry weather.

In the year-ago period, power consumption stood at 130.39 billion units (BU), higher than 127.88 BU in August 2021, according to the government data.

The peak power demand met, which is the highest supply in a day, rose to 236.59 GW in August 2023. The peak power supply stood at 195.22 GW in August 2022 and 196.27 GW in August 2021.

The Power Ministry had estimated the country’s electricity demand to touch 229 GW during the summer season. The demand did not reach the projected level in April-July this year due to unseasonal rains. The peak supply, however, touched a new high of 223.29 GW in June and remained at 208.95 GW in July.

Industry experts said that power consumption was affected in March, April, May and June this year due to widespread rains in the country.

They are of the view that power consumption as well as demand grew in the month of August mainly due to high humid weather conditions and also perk up in industrial activities ahead of festival season.

The peak power supply touched a new high of 236.59 GW in August and reached the record level of 239.97 GW on September 1, 2023.

However, the highest power supply in a day came down slightly to 238.62 GW on Saturday and 223.12GW on Sunday as many establishments remained close on the weekend.

Experts are of the view that power consumption and demand would be steady in coming months.