As the Government of India (GoI) took several measures to meet the summer electricity demand during the months of April, May and June 2024, it was able to satisfactorily manage the peak evening power demand of 224 GW during April 2024. For the month of May, it was projected to peak at 235 GW during day-time and 225 GW during evening hours. However, the scenario was even tougher, thanks to our power sector that we still met a record maximum power demand of 250 GW on 30.05.24.
For the month of June 2024, the peak demand is expected to be 240 GW during day-time and 235 GW during evening hours. The GoI had already taken some additional measures for May and June including: i) similar to that done for imported-coal-based power plants, Section 11 directions had been issued to gas-based power plants too. This has made available additional 6 GW for the month of June, in addition to the 10 GW, which was already available earlier; ii) optimization of hydro power generation has made available an additional 4 GW for meeting the demand during June; iii) the shifting of planned maintenance and minimization of partial and forced outages of thermal power plants have made available another 5 GW; and further compared to April, power generated from wind is expected to increase by 4 GW to 5 GW during June.
Since isolated rains are already there at different parts of the country and the heat stress is supposed to show downward trend from June 19, I think the above-mentioned measures being in place, the demand in June is manageable. If the anticipated above-normal monsoon sets in, tackling the demand will be easier.
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