India’s Power Demand Breaks Record at 185.82 GW on Jan 21: Sahai

Transmission Gets Stronger Push with Approval of Green Power Transmission Line in Bundelkhand

The all India power demand on Jan 21 reached an all-time high of 185.82 GW beating the previous high from December 30, 2020, at 182.89 GW.

The all India power demand on Jan 21, 2021, reached an all-time high of 185.82 GW beating the proviso demand records that was set on December 30, 2020, at 182.89 GW, according to Sanjiv Sahai, Secretary at the Ministry of Power.

In a tweet making the announcement, the secretary stated that “Power demand continues to surge. Yet another record – all India demand: 185.82 GW ie 185, 822 MW at 09:35hrs ie 20/01/21. It has crossed previous all India demand of 182.89 GW ie 182, 888 MW on December 30, 2020.”

According to data provided by the Ministry of Power, the peak power demand met (the highest supply in a day) during January last year stood at 170.97 GW. Which many believe that the rising power demand shows perk up in economic activities leading to higher commercial and industrial demand which was affected due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The peak demand for power crossed 1,85,820 Megawatt at 9:35 AM on today. This is the highest ever, a record.

— R. K. Singh (@RajKSinghIndia) January 20, 2021

The government had imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19. Peak power demand met recorded negative growth from April to August last year, due to the pandemic.

The power demand recovered from September 2020 onwards. Peak power demand met grew at 1.7 percent in September, 3.4 percent in October, 3.5 percent in November and then 7.3 percent in December.

Recently, a report by ICRA had revealed that it expects the electricity demand in India to witness a growth of 6 percent – 7 percent in FY 2022 against an estimated decline of 2 percent – 2.5 percent in FY 2021, driven by a favourable base effect and likely recovery in demand from the commercial and industrial (C&I) segments.

Furthermore, the credit outlook also remains negative for the distribution segment, given the continued weakness in financial position of most state distribution utilities (Discoms). Notwithstanding a demand recovery in FY 2022, the discom losses are likely to remain at greater than Rs 750 billion, given the inadequate tariff revisions, high distribution losses and additional interest cost on the loans availed under the liquidity support scheme.