Domestic electricity demand hits new high again

India’s electricity demand reached an all-time high on Friday morning, further continuing its record-setting trend of the last few weeks.

“A fresh record has been created in power demand breaching the previous record of 1,85,820 MW, which was created on January 20. Today power demand touched 1,87,300 MW at 10:28 am,” R K Singh, Minister of State (independent charge) for Power. tweeted on Friday.

India’s coal-fired power generation plants, which have an installed capacity of 205.85 gigawatts, recorded their maximum generation of 141 gigawatts on Friday, Sanjiv Nandan Sahai, secretary, Power Ministry, tweeted.

Earlier, electricity demand had reached an all-time high of 182.88 GW on December 30. The government has showcased this record-breaking trend as a sign of a much-needed economic rebound, as well as of the success of the Saubhagya scheme to improve electricity access across the country.

The Friday record “again underscores the growing strength of our economy” and “also underscores the benefits of empowering the poor, which our Government did under Saubhagya,” Singh added.

India’s electricity demand peaks had fallen after a halt in commercial and industrial activity during the Covid-19 lockdown. A rise in household electricity demand was reported as Indians spent most of their time at home, but it wasn’t enough to cover the shortfall in demand due to the absence of business activity.

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