BSES Expects Delhi to Create New Power Demand Record This Winter

BSES has issued a statement, claiming that Delhi is set to witness a new record this winter in power demand which is they expect will rise to 5,480 MW

Delhi power distributor BSES has issued a statement, claiming that the capital is set to witness a new record this winter in power demand which is they expect will rise to 5,480 Megawatt (MW), 2.5 percent higher than the demand of 5,343 MW recorded over the winter months of the last fiscal.

“The back-bone of BSES’ power-supply arrangements during the winter-months includes long-term agreements from power-plants, including Hydro and Delhi-based gas-fuelled generating stations. Additionally, BSES is also receiving 190+ MW of wind power, 25 MW from Waste-to-Energy and 70 MW of solar power from SECI,” the Discom detailed in the statement.

The utility also mentioned that is being helped by over 90 MW of rooftop solar power systems that have been installed on rooftops in South, West, East and Central Delhi.

“Apart from these, BSES Discoms (BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna) are using avenues like Banking, Reserve Shutdown, Power Exchange and ensuring sufficient Spinning Reserves to dispose of surplus power as well as ensuring reliable power supply, as also making arrangements to get power during summer months,” the statement said.

It also said that in case of any unforeseeable contingency, the Discoms will buy short-term power from the exchange which is available at economical rates. It is also using advanced load-forecasting statistical and modelling techniques to accurately forecast power demand.

Recently, the Discom had also announced the expansion of its Solar City Program by launching ‘Solarise Safdurjung” and ‘Solarise Karkardooma’.

The ambitious Discom led and community-based demand aggregation programs were launched in virtual ceremonies in presence of the RWAs from the two areas. This initiative, a pilot, is pursuant to a Statement of Intent (SoI) signed by the US Department of State and India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under the US-India Clean Energy Finance Task Force on November 15, 2018. It has been rolled out in partnership with SmartPower, a US-based non-profit organisation focused on local community campaigns to increase consumer adoption of clean energy, WeeGreen and Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW), a leading not for profit policy research organisation.

Led by BRPL and BYPL, the ‘Solarise’ initiative aims to maximise the utilisation of solar rooftop potential in a targeted area. The program’s objective is to create a market-based approach for scaling-up rooftop solar and introduce community-led demand aggregation for deployment. In the first phase, the campaign will aggressively promote the adoption of rooftop solar in Safdurjung and Karkardooma areas. Subsequently, depending on the results, the program will also be launched for other BSES areas.