Peak Power Demand Drops 22 Percent to 127.96 GW due to Lockdown

Peak power demand in the country declined by around 22 percent to 127.96 GW on March 25, 2020, showing the impact of lockdown amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Peak power demand in the country declined by around 22 percent to 127.96 GW on March 25, 2020, compared to 163.72 GW on March 20, showing the impact of lockdown amid COVID-19 outbreak. In actual terms, the power demand has come down by about 35 GW on March 25, in a week’s time.

The peak demand met was down mainly due to lower industry and state power distribution utilities (Discoms) demand across the county as industrial and commercial establishments are completely shut under the lockdown.

An industry source said, “The peak demand met was 163.72 GW on March 20, which came down to 161.74 GW on March 21. The demand further dropped sharply to 135.20 GW on March 22 due to a call for Janata Curfew by the Prime Minister.” The source further said the peak demand met improved slightly to 145.49 GW on Monday but fell again to 135.93 GW on Tuesday and subsequently to 127.96 GW on Wednesday (March 25), showing the impact of lockdown.

In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has imposed a lockdown for 21-days earlier this week.

The spot power price touched three year low of 60 paisa per unit for supplies on Wednesday on Indian Energy Exchange due to low demand. The source told PTI that the average spot power price is estimated to be around Rs 2 per unit for supply on March 27, 2020, which is lower than Rs 2.24 per unit for supply on Thursday (March 26, 2020).

Peak power demand met was 168.7 GW for the month of March in 2019. It was 176.38 GW in February this year.

Earlier we had reported that the lockdown had caused the pot power price of electricity to drop to a three-year low of 60 paise (60p). According to data from the IEX, the previous low of minimum spot electricity price was recorded at 52 paise per unit in 2017 which rose to Rs 1.72 per unit in 2018 and then dipped to 94 paise in 2019 before touching a three-year low of 60 paise in 2020 for supply on Wednesday (March 25, 2020).

Industry sources also believe that the demand is unlikely to pick up in the next three weeks and suggested that the distribution companies (Discoms) can schedule cheap power available under open access on exchanges and reduce consumption of expensive supplies.