Power Consumption has Returned to Normal, Over 11% Growth in October

India’s power consumption grew 11.45 percent to 55.37 BU in the first half of October this year, mainly driven by buoyancy in C&I activities.

India’s power consumption grew 11.45 percent to 55.37 billion units (BU) in the first half of October this year, mainly driven by buoyancy in industrial and commercial activities, as per government data. According to the power ministry data, power consumption in India was recorded at 49.67 BU during the same period last year.

For a full month in October last year, power consumption was 97.84 BU. Thus, the extrapolation of half-month data gives sufficient indication that power consumption may witness year-on-year double digit growth this month, according to experts.

Double-digit growth in power consumption in the first half of this month showed that commercial and industrial demand has returned to normalcy and even gone beyond it after improving with the easing of lockdown restrictions. And industry experts believe that the trend will only get better than this in the coming months.

The government had imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to contain the spread of COVID-19. Power consumption started declining from March onwards due to fewer economic activities in the country. The COVID-19 situation had affected power consumption for six months in a row from March to August this year.

During the lockdown months, power consumption on a year-on-year basis declined 8.7 percent in March, 23.2 percent in April, 14.9 percent in May, 10.9 percent in June, 3.7 percent in July, and 1.7 percent in August.

Recently, PTI had reported that for the first week of October, power consumption in the country had recorded double-digit growth of 13.65 percent to reach 25.95 BU.

Prior to that, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh while addressing a virtual conference had said, “In September, our power demand was higher than September 2019. So the growth started again. Despite the fact that the COVID problem lingers, the growth in our power consumption and demand has started.”