NEW DELHI: As a heat wave scorched the national capital for the fourth straight day, Delhi’s peak power demand scaled a new high of 7,323 MW on Friday afternoon.
However, later in the day, the national capital got some much-needed relief after parts of the city received rainfall. The season’s earlier peak of 7,026 MW was registered on Thursday.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to say that the city managed to meet the peak demand without any power cuts.
“Despite a sharp increase in electricity demand, Delhi has managed it well. No power cuts. Uninterrupted power supply,” he tweeted.
Power Minister Satyendar Jain too congratulated the city’s power sector.
“Delhi successfully met its highest electricity peak demand of 7323 MW today. Heartiest congratulations to the Delhi power sector for this achievement,” the minister tweeted.
Last year, the peak power demand of the city was 6,314 MW on June 29. The all-time high peak power demand of 7,409 MW was recorded in Delhi on July 2, 2019.BSES discoms — BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) — successfully met the peak power demand of 3,079 MW and 1,640 MW, respectively, in their areas, a spokesperson of the power utility said.
Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited successfully met the peak power demand of 2,104 MW, the highest so far this season, on Friday afternoon without any network constraint and power outage, a TPDDL spokesperson said.
In the evening, dark grey clouds swarmed Delhi, as cool, gusty winds barrelled through the capital, bringing the mercury down by a few notches.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 41.3 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperature on Friday morning was at 27.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average, and the relative humidity at 8.30 am was 25 per cent.
The monitoring station at Palam recorded 26 mm rain, Lodhi Road 2.5 mm, and Safdarjung 0.4 mm precipitation, the meteorological office said.
Cloudy skies and light rain are predicted for Saturday.
However, the relief is likely to be short-lived. The maximum temperature is predicted to hover around 40 degrees Celsius from Sunday to Wednesday next week.