Amid the heatwave conditions prevailing in northern India, the country’s peak electricity demand touched a new high of 197.06 gigawatt (GW) on Tuesday. On 1 Jul’21, India’s peak electricity demand had reached 191.24 GW.
The country’s power consumption rose to 115.39 billion units (BU) in Jun’21, up by 4.7% m-o-m and 10% y-o-y.
A revival in economic activity following the easing of Covid-19 cases has led to a sharp rise in commercial and industrial power demand in India.
However, owing to the rise in electricity load, several parts of north India have also been facing power outages as peak shortage has been recorded at 1,205 MW on Tuesday as against 720 MW on 1 Jul’21.
Of India’s total electricity demand load pattern, industrial and agricultural consumption account for around 41% and 18%, respectively, while commercial electricity consumption accounts for 8.24%.
Punjab’s acute power crisis
Among the several north Indian states, Punjab has been bearing the brunt of long hours of power outages, which have been halting commercial and industrial activities.
Amid the peak season of paddy transplantation, temperatures have shot up to as high as 40 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal.
The delay in monsoon has further aggravated the power crisis as electricity demand has touched 14,225 MW, while utilities have only been able to supply 12,800 MW, creating a gap of 1,425 MW. This has further triggered power cuts by up to 14 hours.
To balance out the power demand in the state, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has asked large-scale industrial operations to shut down till 10 Jul’21 and has directed utilities to divert the power towards the agri and domestic sectors.
In industries that require continuous power supply, the state government has directed that just 50% of the sanctioned or contracted load be utilised from 8-18 Jul’21.
Thermal plants in Punjab have the capacity to generate 6,840 MW of power, but are generating only 5,640 MW. There have been outages in the Ropar thermal plant (210 MW) and Talwandi Sabo thermal plant (990 MW).
The state government in 2018 had already closed the Bathinda thermal plant, raising its dependency on private plants. The Talwandi Sabo thermal plant generates only 50% of its capacity, while PSPCL is majorly dependent on rains as the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) is also facing water shortage for hydel power generation.
Power generation by fuel type in India
Amid the ongoing power crisis, data from the National Load Dispatch Centre showed that power generation via coal, gas, lignite, hydro, solar, biomass decreased to 1,187 MU on Tuesday as against 1244 MU on 1 Jul’21.
Electricity generation via coal has decreased slightly to 650 MU on Tuesday as against 657 MU on 1 Jul’21.
This has impacted thermal coal procurement from the region as industries located in Ludhiana, Mandi Gobindgarh, Khanna, Amloh, Sirhind, Jalandhar, Phagwara and Hoshiarpur last week were directed to shut down their units compulsorily for 48 hours. The industrial units located in these two zones alone account for the major share in the state.
According to market participants, several industries in the state has been incurring huge losses as they have been either shutting down or have reduced operations due to lack of power supply.
What lies ahead?
With no signs of rainfall in the northern states, soaring temperature, and escalated imported thermal coal prices, the gap in demand and supply in power is likely to increase in the near term. Subsequently, industrial activities in the region, including steel, cement and brick manufacturing, are likely to remain under pressure.
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