Electricity consumption increased by 1.8 percent to 407.76 billion units in April-June

New Delhi: The electricity consumption in the country has reached 407.76 billion units with a marginal increase of 1.8 percent year-on-year in the April-June quarter of the current year, according to government statistics. The increase in power consumption has been marginal mainly due to unseasonal rains and Cyclone Biparjoy.

Compared to the current year, electricity consumption was 400.44 billion units in the April-June quarter of last year and 340.37 billion units in the same period of 2021. That is, the consumption of electricity in the same period of 2022 was 17.6 percent more than last year.

The peak power demand has increased to 223.23 GW in April-June, 2023 from 215.88 GW in the same period of 2022. It was 193.99 GW in April-June, 2021. Thus, in the first quarter of the current financial year, there has been a slow growth in peak power demand i.e. excess power supply in a day.

The power ministry had earlier estimated that the country's power demand would touch 229 GW during the summer. But it did not reach the expected level in April-June this year due to unseasonal rains, cyclone Biparjoy and heavy monsoon rains.

The Ministry has taken several measures to avoid outages due to supply disruption. Imported coal-fired power plants have been asked to operate at full capacity.

Besides, these plants have also been directed to import coal for blending to avoid any shortage.

Industry experts say rains have reduced power demand as people used less cooling equipment during April-June 2023 compared to last year.

According to the latest data on the Index of Industrial Production, electricity production fell by 0.1 per cent in the April-May period, while it grew by 17.4 per cent in the same period in 2022. The data showed that power generation growth was almost flat at 0.9 percent in May and fell to 1.1 percent in April.