IANS file photo
NEW DELHI: Surge in use of air-conditioners amid the scorching heat pushed power demand to an all-time high of 270.8 gigawatt (GW) on Thursday, almost matching the peak projected by the ministry of power for the summer of 2026.It was the fourth consecutive day that national power demand breached the previous record and touched a fresh high. On Wednesday, peak power demand was recorded at 265.4 GW. With the Met department predicting extreme temperatures across large parts of the country over the next seven days, officials said demand may rise further.Officials said the recent surge in demand was being driven by extensive AC use not just in urban pockets, but also in semi-urban areas and smaller towns. “This extra demand is the result of ACs being run between 12 noon and 3.30-4 pm. That’s why the peak is being reached around 3.30 pm to 3.45 pm every day, when ACs run at full blast,” an official said.“There are an estimated 1.3 crore AC units in the country, and the numbers are growing at 15-20% annually. At this pace, peak power demand may reach 750 GW by 2047,” the official added.Officials said the sharp increase in AC penetration was reshaping electricity consumption patterns across the country. Niti Aayog data showed that while electricity connections rose only 6% in the last four years – from 335 million in 2021-22 to 354 million in 2024-25 – power consumption increased 23%, from 1,317 billion units to 1,623 billion units during the same period. “This is largely because of ACs, which have reached smaller cities and towns,” the official said.Another power ministry official said there was no shortage of electricity supply at the grid level and any outages in states were primarily due to local distribution failures.“Today (Thursday), at 1545 hours (3.45 pm), peak power demand (solar hours) of 265.44 GW was successfully met. This represents a new high in peak demand met, surpassing yesterday’s (Wednesday) peak demand (solar hours) of 260.45 GW, which was also successfully met,” the ministry of power posted on X.A third official said the short-term national resource adequacy plan prepared by the national load despatch centre projected peak demand during solar hours at up to 288 GW this season, while non-solar-hour demand may cross 260 GW. “We have managed all peak power demands smoothly. Maintenance of power plants has been deferred beyond the monsoon to ensure there are no generation constraints,” the official said.Council on Energy, Environment and Water’s senior programme lead Disha Aggarwal said system operators are likely to fully utilise the available coal-based capacity to meet any further rise in daytime peak demand in the coming week. “Meeting the night-time peak is more challenging and costly for discoms as solar generation is unavailable and coal plants are already operating at near full capacity,” she said.Aggarwal added that rising wind generation is expected to ease supply stress during non-solar hours. “On May 20, the night-time peak demand crossed 251 GW, with Grid India reporting a shortage of 1.6 GW. However, wind generation has already begun picking up. During non-solar hours, it has risen from 11.6 GW in mid-May to more than 20 GW now. As wind speeds strengthen further in June, generation is likely to increase further. Hydro output could also provide additional support from June onwards,” she said.
