The country faced 1.6 per cent peak power deficit in the April-November period of this fiscal, negating the Union government’s claim of zero deficit.
In June this year, the government claimed the country would not encounter any power shortfall this year, citing its efforts to overcome fuel scarcity.
A report by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) says of the total peak power demand of 159,542 Mw in the period, the country’s availability was 156,934 Mw, meaning that 2634 Mw of power requirement was unmet.
The deficit was more pronounced in the Northern region where peak deficit was 1.4 per cent. Jammu & Kashmir topped the power deficit list with a shortfall of 15.4 per cent. Uttar Pradesh was next with 9.8 per cent deficit and it was followed by Uttarakhand at 2.4 per cent. With a deficit of 81 Mw, Delhi, too faced a shortfall of 1.1 per cent during the peak hours.
Among the southern states, Kerala and Karnataka were the major sufferers with peak power shortfall of 3.3 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively. Only Telangana was power surplus in the southern region where the average shortfall was 1.1 per cent.
In the eastern region, Odisha and Jharkhand were able to meet their peak power demand. Bihar fared the worst with a shortfall of 4.7 per cent during the peak hours. West Bengal grappled with a marginal shortfall of 0.6 per cent.
In terms of peak power availability, the western region proved to be the best with an overall deficit of only 0.1 per cent.
Among the North Eastern states, the peak power deficit in Arunachal Pradesh was a high of 5.4 per cent while Assam had 2.4 per cent.
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