With Delhi experiencing winters ahead of the schedule and the minimum temperature equivalent to several hill stations, Tata Power Delhi Distribution (Tata Power-DDL) is fully prepared to ensure adequate power availability during this winter season to a populace of 7 million in its area of operations in North Delhi.
The company is expecting the peak demand to touch 1700 MW this season and has made long-term power tie-ups for meeting the same effectively. A total of 2000 MW of power is available from long-term sources with the company which would help the anticipated demand.
The overall winter peak demand for Delhi is expected to touch a record high of 5400 MW. On 1st January 2020 (last winter season) Delhi touched the record peak demand of 5343 MW as Tata Power-DDL’s recorded its all-time high of 1588 MW.
Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO, Tata Power-DDL said: “We are fully prepared, to ensure warm and safe winters to our consumers and this is only possible through an uninterrupted power supply. We have made a surplus arrangement of up to 300 MW over and above the expected peak demand which will also cater to the contingencies. Besides this, we are using a mix of smart technologies like AI & Machine Learning for better load forecasting to provide reliable power supply to all our consumers.”
Tata Power-DDL’s power-supply arrangements during the winter-months include long-term agreements from power-plants like Maithon Power, NTPC Stations, and Delhi based gas-fuelled generating stations. Additionally, the company will also receive around 20 MW from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI),180 MW from SunEdison GreenKo and around 30 MW from Wind Energy.
Apart from these, Tata Power-DDL is also using advanced techniques and avenues like ‘Banking’, ‘Reserve Shutdown’, ‘Power Exchange’ and ensuring sufficient ‘Spinning Reserves’ to dispose of surplus power. In case of any unforeseeable contingency, the company will purchase short-term power from the exchange which is available at economical rates during winter months. Adding to these efforts are the advanced load-forecasting statistical and modelling techniques which are helping the company forecast the power demand.
