CHENNAI: In an indication that power demand growth is well and truly back on the upward trajectory after having been dented by lockdowns to contain successive waves of Covid, India registered a new record with peak power demand on Wednesday breaching the double century-mark for the first time.
“All India power-demand crossed 200 GW at 1201 hrs today,” tweeted Union Minister for Power R K Singh. For context, last month, the peak power demand met stood at 191.51 GW, registered on June 30. This number has been steadily recovering month-on-month after having been slowed a little by the peak of the second wave in April and May this year. Peak power demand met came in at 186.3 GW in March, 182.55 GW in April, and 168.8 GW in May.
However, June and July have seen a steep rise in power consumption metrics, due to both increasing temperatures caused by a delayed monsoon and recovering industrial activity, which has led to an increase in industrial power demand. “We expect demand to continue on the upward path, especially since temperatures are quite high in northern India currently. We also see recovery in industrial demand after restrictions have been eased. But the dip in demand this summer due to the second wave was far less severe than last year,” said a senior state-owned discom official.
Relaxed norm to exit power purchase deal
Even setting improving demand aside, power distribution companies (discom) have something else to cheer for. On Tuesday, the Union Ministry of Power clarified that discoms can stop all purchase from a particular power project once the Power Purchase Agreement’s (PPA) has completed 25 years.
The clarification came after discom BSES’ move to stop procuring power from NTPC’s Dadri-1 plant and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) decision to allow the discoms to approach the power ministry to give up their allocations. The regulator’s direction had gone against NTPC’s argument that there was no specific clause in the PPA allowing exit.
The ministry’s clarification, however, opens the doors for many discoms to exit onerous PPAs that are older than 25 years. “This will allow many distributors to seek cheaper power. Many similar requests are likely going forward because of the ministry clarification,” the discom official noted.The ministry had, in March this year, allowed discoms to relinquish PPAs in commercial operation for over 25 years.