Power demand surges amid souring heat; North India logs record demand

Further, the northern region also registered a record energy consumption of 1.737 million units. The region consists of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi have also clocked their highest demand of 15.850 GW, 14.002 GW, 12.540 GW and 7.528 GW respectively. Further, Punjab and Delhi have recorded their all-time highest energy consumption of 326.4 million units and 153.5 million units respectively.

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The trend of rise in power demand has largely been same across the country and the nationwide maximum power demand met on Tuesday was 203.847 GW, according to data from Power System Operation Corporation Ltd.

The eastern region had clocked its all time high demand of 26.096 GW on Monday, 27 June.

Going ahead the power demand may ease in the near term as the advancement of south-west monsoon rains may calm the temperatures in north India including the national capital.

“Conditions are favourable for further advance of monsoon into remaining parts of Arabian Sea and Gujarat, some parts of Rajasthan, remaining parts Madhya Pradesh, entire Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh and some parts of Jammu and Kashmir, some parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, entire Delhi during next 48­hours(i.e. between 30th June to 1st July),” said the Indian Meteorological Department in a tweet.

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Southwest Monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of Bihar, some more parts of Uttar Pradesh, entire Uttarakhand, most parts of Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, it said.

The monsoon rains also bring about concerns of coal shortage as the fossil fuel turn wet and inundated due to the rains.

The 173 thermal power plants under the ambit of Central Electricity Authority have a total coal stock of 26.21 million tonne, which is 39% of the required stock of 67.01 million tonne.

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