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Power demand shoots up on cold wave across North India
- With projections of the cold wave continuing in January, the demand is expected to remain elevated.
Power demand in the country has shot up in the past few weeks amid plummeting temperatures across North India.
Peak power demand in December remained largely above 200GW and touched a high of 224GW due to increased demand for heating. With projections of the cold wave continuing in January, the demand is expected to remain elevated.
On the first day of 2025, the peak power demand of the country met by the distribution companies (discoms) was 214.65GW, recorded at 10.11am. The peak shortage, the gap between the actual demand and the demand met , was recorded at 4.17GW, showed data from the Grid Controller of India.
The country, especially north-west India, including Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, has been grappling with severe cold with minimum temperature 3-5 degrees Celsius lower than normal. Cold day conditions were observed in Delhi for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). With 4-9 degrees Celsius, similar weather conditions were observed in other parts of north-west India like Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, western Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, though the severity on Wednesday was less than a day ago.
Lowest temperature
The lowest minimum temperature of 4.8 degrees Celsius was recorded at Hisar in Haryana. The minimum temperature in Delhi on Thursday was 7.6 degrees Celsius, 0.2 degree Celsius lower than the previous day and it was 8.3 degrees Celsius a year ago.
“States such as Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, experienced cold weather conditions in December 2024, particularly during the last week of the month. This resulted in increased power consumption across India, driven by heightened usage of heating appliances. Notably, the highest daily supply (peak power demand met) reached 224.16GW on 20 December, compared to 213.62GW (on 29 December 2023) during the same period last year,” Rohit Bajaj, joint managing director of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).
The national capital witnessed a record winter peak demand of 5,656MW on Wednesday at 11.44am due to an increase in heating requirement. On 31 December, Delhi registered a peak demand of 5,213MW—the highest ever for the month. In December, demand crossed the 5,000MW mark for the first time ever.
Peak demand
According to the State Load Despatch Centre, Delhi, the peak winter demand is likely to cross 6,300MW this winter, a new record for the season.
An official with Delhi-based discom BSES said that in order to maintain reliable supply, BSES has secured over 2,000MW of renewable energy and this green power mix includes 840MW of solar power, 546MW of hydropower, 500MW of wind energy, 40MW of waste-to-energy and over 180MW from rooftop solar installations across Delhi’s neighbourhoods.
A spokesperson for the Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd, which caters to the power demand of North and North-West Delhi said, "This winter season, Tata Power-DDL is expecting the peak demand to breach the 1,840-MW mark. Last winter, the peak demand in Tata Power-DDL’s area of operation was 1,826 MW. Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (Tata Power-DDL) successfully met this winter season’s peak power demand of 1,739 MW yesterday (Wednesday), the highest till date, without any power outages or network constraint."
On the discom's preparedness to meet the spike in demand, the spokesperson said that the company has made the required arrangements, including long-term power tie-ups, to meet demand and has ensured reliability of its equipment at these low temperatures and foggy conditions.
“With this diverse mix, up to 53% of BSES’ peak winter power demand—expected to exceed 3,900MW—will be met through green energy. And to ensure consistent power availability, BSES discoms are leveraging mechanisms like banking, power exchange, and maintaining 'spinning reserves'. If demand unexpectedly spikes, BSES is prepared to secure short-term power from the exchange. Advanced load forecasting will also enhance reliability by ensuring demand is predicted with precision,” the official said.
IEX’s Bajaj noted that due to higher supplies on the exchanges, the increase in demand has not lifted the prices of power.
Prices within control
Despite this surge in demand, prices on power exchanges were significantly lower than the previous year, owing to higher supply-side volumes, he said. The average market clearing prices in December reflected this trend, with day-ahead market (DAM) prices declining by 14.3%, from ₹4.54 per unit in December 2023 to ₹3.89 per unit in December, Bajaj added.
In the last week of December, when parts of northern India faced severe cold weather, sell liquidity or the supply on DAM on the exchanges was 70% higher than the same period in 2023.
The better power supply can be attributed to the higher production of domestic coal and the government’s mandates to imported coal-based plants to operate at full capacity, in a bid to avert a crisis, both during the peak summer demand and winter demand periods.
Power demand is likely to remain elevated for the next few days, however, likely respite from the cold wave may ease the demand going forward. The minimum temperature in many parts of central and east India in the past 24 hours ended 8:30am on Thursday was between 9-14 degrees Celsius. Northwest India, including Delhi, is likely to get respite from the cold in the next five days with a 3-5 degrees Celsius temperature increase. The Met department in its monthly weather forecast on Wednesday said January is likely to be warmer than usual across most of the country, except east, northwest and west-central regions.
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First Published:2 Jan 2025, 06:33 PM IST
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