Amid the coal shortage at power plants in the country, the peak power shortfall reduced to 986 MW on October 15 from 11,626 MW on October 7.
India’s electricity consumption grew by 3.35% to 57.22 billion units (BU) in the first half of October, showing a recovery shortage of coal In power generation plants, according to data from the Ministry of Power.
During October 1-15 last year, electricity consumption was 55.36 BU which was higher than 49.66 BU in the same period in 2019. The data clearly shows that the demand as well as the consumption of electricity in the country has improved.
Amid the coal shortage at power plants in the country, the peak power shortfall reduced to 986 MW on October 15 from 11,626 MW on October 7.
It is noteworthy that the peak power shortfall of 11,626 MW on October 7 was the highest during the first half of this month.
In addition, the latest coal stock report for 135 coal-fired power plants monitored by the Central Electricity Authority on October 13 showed that the number of non-pithead power plants with less than four days of coal stock (supercritical coal stock) came down to 64. has occurred. 69 on October 8 when daily electricity consumption reached its peak of 3,900 million units in the first half of this month.
Earlier this week, the power ministry had said the capacity of units under outage due to low coal stocks declined from 11 GW on October 12 to 5 GW on October 14.
Experts believe that there will be a good recovery in power demand as well as consumption, as the government’s efforts to accelerate coal supply to plants and improve economic activity due to the lifting of lockdown restrictions by the states.
Several states had imposed lockdown restrictions after the second wave of the pandemic hit the country in April this year. The restrictions were gradually lifted with the decline in the number of COVID cases.
However, September this year saw a marginal improvement in power consumption and a marginal increase of 1.7% to 114.35 BU mainly due to delayed monsoon (heavy rains). In September last year, electricity consumption stood at 112.43 BU, up from 107.51 BU in the same month of 2019.
Experts say that the improvement in power demand and consumption in September 2021 was mainly due to the heavy rains in the month.
During the first half of the current month, the maximum power demand met on October 11, or the highest single-day supply, stood at 174.60 GW, up from 169.05 GW (recorded on October 8, 2020) in the same period last year. . The peak power demand for the whole of October 2020 was 169.89 GW.
In August this year, electricity consumption increased by over 17% to 127.88 BU as compared to 109.21 BU in the same month in 2020.
The second wave of COVID-19 entered the country in mid-April this year and impacted the recovery in demand for commercial and industrial electricity as states started imposing restrictions in the latter part of the month. The month saw a year-on-year growth of around 38.5% in electricity consumption.
Despite a lower base of 102.08 BU in the same month of 2020, May this year saw a 6.6% year-on-year increase in electricity consumption to 108.80 BU. According to the latest figures, it rose almost 9% to 114.48 BU in June. 105.08 BU in the same month last year.
It rose to 123.72 BU in July from 112.14 BU in the same month a year ago.
The power consumption in February this year was recorded at 103.25 BU as compared to 103.81 BU a year ago. In March, electricity consumption increased by almost 22% to 120.63 BU as against 98.95 BU in the same month of 2020.
After a gap of six months, electricity consumption had registered a year-on-year growth of 4.6% in September 2020 and 11.6% in October 2020.
In November, electricity consumption growth slowed to 3.12%, mainly due to the onset of winter. It rose 4.5% in December, while it was higher by 4.4% in January 2021.
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