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Ministry of Power Implement Measures to Address Surging Electricity Demand

North India has successfully met its highest-ever peak demand of 89 GW amidst challenging conditions.

June 21, 2024. By News Bureau

The Ministry of Power is implementing strategic action plans to ensure adequate power supply to address the surge in electricity demand in north India.

Since May 17, 2024, the northern region of India has been grappling with high demand for electricity due to a prevailing heat wave. However, despite these challenging conditions, India’s northern region has successfully met the highest-ever peak demand of 89 GW on June 17, 2024.

“This achievement was made possible by importing 25 to 30 percent of the region's power requirement from neighbouring regions,” the Ministry of Power stated.

According to the IMD forecast, it is expected that the ongoing heatwave conditions are likely to ease from June 20, 2024, in north-west India. However, the Ministry of Power has advised all utilities to maintain a high state of alert and minimise forced outages of equipment.

The Power Ministry is taking various strategic actions to meet the highest-ever peak demand of 250 GW during this summer season.

The Ministry has issued directions under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, for Imported Coal-based (ICB) plants to continue the generation support during the high demand period. It has also ordered the minimum planned maintenance schedule for generating units during this period. All efforts are being made to curtail partial and forced outages to maximise the availability of generation capacity. Additionally, plants under long-term outages have been sensitised to revive their units to ensure maximum power generation.

Generation companies (GENCOs) have been directed to keep their plants in efficient order to ensure full capacity availability for the smooth operation of various generation sources and coal-based thermal stations have been advised to maintain adequate coal supplies.

The government has issued guidelines for the hydro stations to conserve water during solar hours and dispatch maximum generation during non-solar hours for adequate power supply.

The ministry has also issued directives for gas-based power plants to provide grid support under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003. Moreover, around 860 MW of additional gas-based capacity (non-NTPC) has been tied up through competitive bidding. In addition, 5000 MW of NTPC gas-based capacity has been advised to be ready to tackle any immediate operation as per system requirements.

According to the provisions of the Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and Related Matters) Rules, 2022, any un-requisitioned or surplus power available with generating stations is to be offered in the market. The surplus power can be utilised by any other buyer from the market.

The ministry has issued an advisory stating that all the states can also tie up power with other neighbouring states with surplus capacity via the PUShP portal.

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