Power demand shoots up to highest ever of 3627 MW

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) As the hot and humid conditions in the capital today left Delhiites sweating, the power demand shot up to the highest ever level of 3627 MW, leading to several areas in Delhi being subjected to one and a half hours of loadshedding.

The peak demand of 3627 MW was the highest ever recorded for Delhi and one MW more than the peak demand of 3626 MW on June 23 last year, a Delhi Transco spokesperson said. With the summer season having just begun, the power demand during peak summer could go up to 3900 MW, the spokesperson said.

Though the Delhi Transco was able to meet the power demand during the peak period today, it was forced to resort to one to one and a half hours of loadshedding in several areas during the day to meet the shortage of 100 to 300 MW of power.

The Transco spokesperson said the shortage was largely due to the frequency problems being experienced by the Northern Grid, which accounts for a major supply of power to Delhi.

The problem of low frequency of power in the Northern Grid has persisted over the last few weeks due to overdrawing from the network by the other states in the region, forcing the Delhi Transco to take recourse to loadshedding to keep the grid under control.

Nevertheless, Delhi Transco sources feel that with some Central power plants like those at Dadri and Sanghrauli expected to be back into operation soon, power generation of the grid might improve next week.

In fact, they expect the power situation in Delhi to completely normalise by the middle of this month, when many of power plants are expected to be back in operation.

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