NEW DELHI: India’s peak power demand hit an all-time high for the third straight day on Wednesday, with electricity requirement touching 265.4 GW amid intensive use of ACs and cooling appliances due to scorching heat across the country.The peak electricity demand was recorded at 257.5 GW on Monday, which was eclipsed on Tuesday with a new record requirement of 260.5 GW. As per the National Power Portal, the peak demand of 265.4 GW was achieved at 3.45 pm on Wednesday, with thermal energy providing the baseload power of 166 GW and solar energy contributing 58 GW.With heatwave conditions continuing relentlessly in north, northwest and central India, power ministry officials and industry experts said the demand may rise further in the coming days with increased use of ACs by the domestic as well as commercial sectors. While govt has projected the peak power demand to reach 271 GW this summer, officials said arrangements have been made to ensure that even a requirement of 280 GW is met without any shortfall.According to Grid India’s daily report, compiled on the basis of data from the National Load Despatch Centre, there was no shortfall in meeting peak power demand during solar hours on Tuesday, but the peak during non-solar hours saw a shortage of 698 MW. The report is compiled a day later.Disha Aggarwal, senior programme lead at Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a think tank, said record heat and surging electricity demand continue to test the power system and highlighted the need to deploy energy storage systems at a large scale to make the system robust even during non-solar hours. While there is surplus solar power during the day, Aggarwal said the installed coal capacity runs at full capacity during the night.“With projections pointing to a 270 GW peak in the coming weeks, and hotter nights becoming the norm, India must urgently act on four fronts. First, fast-track the commissioning of 9.7 GW of battery and pumped hydro storage, planned for FY27, to utilise cheaper and surplus solar power during nights; ensure adequate coal stocks are maintained; expand the application of time-of-day tariffs so that smart-metered consumers can optimise evening consumption; and equip discoms with AI-driven, weather-linked tools to anticipate demand hotspots and prevent transformer failures,” Aggarwal said.
