Power deficit slips from 2% in April to 0.6% in June

NEW DELHI: Power deficit came down from 2 per cent in April to 0.4 per cent in May and 0.6 per cent in June despite significant rise in demand of electricity, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Power Minister R K Singh said electricity supplied grew 12.8 per cent in April 2022, as compared to the year-ago month, across India.

Power requirement, on the other hand grew 14.7 per cent in April on all-India basis, resulting in a deficit of 2 per cent.

“The gap between energy requirement and energy supplied had been reduced considerably...to 0.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent during the months of May 2022 and June 2022 respectively, despite the significant increase in energy requirement during these months as compared to the corresponding months of May 2021 and June 2021,” he said.

The gap between energy demand and supply is generally on account of factors other than inadequacy of power availability in the country e.g. constraints in distribution network, financial constraints, commercial reasons, forced outage of generating units etc, he explained.

He said the coal stock available at the power plants monitored by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on daily basis was about 25.6 Million Tonnes (MT) as on March 31, 2022.

The stock depleted to 21.9 MT as on April 30, 2022 but increased during May and June and has now reached 28.7 MT as on July 21, 2022, which is sufficient for an average of 10 days at a requirement of 85 per cent Plant Load Factor (PLF), he added.

In another reply, the minister said the cumulative inter regional transmission capacity of the National Grid as on June 30, 2022 is 1,12,250 MW, which is likely to get enhanced to 1,18,050 MW by the end of 2023.

In another reply, he said the industrial consumers consume the maximum electricity at 41.16 per cent followed by domestic consumer (25.77 per cent), agriculture consumers (17.67 per cent) and commercial 8.29 per cent. Singh also told the House that the power supply hours in urban areas and rural areas as on July 8, 2022, was 23.78 hours and 21.48 hours, respectively.

Power requirement, on the other hand grew 14.7 per cent in April on all-India basis, resulting in a deficit of 2 per cent