India’s demand for electricity reached a record high in April as its northern provinces recovered from the hottest months before the summer decades, with an increase in air consumption that has caused serious electricity problems for more than six years.
Demand for electricity has grown by 13.2% to 135.4 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), as demand for electricity in the north has grown between 16% and 75%, government data analysis has shown. Electricity consumption is expected to increase as India’s meteorological office predicts more than normal high temperatures in many areas of the central west, northwest, north and northeast.
India and neighboring Pakistan have been battling extreme heat this year and more than a billion people are at risk of global warming, scientists have warned, linking the onset of summer to climate change. Unprecedented power consumption led to widespread power outages in April, as resources struggled to control demand as coal was reduced. Electricity supply has fallen sharply in demand by 2.41 billion units, or 1.8%, the worst since October 2015.
Delhi’s energy demand rose by 42% in April, while northern provinces such as Punjab and Rajasthan saw demand for electricity increase by 36% and 28% respectively, government data said. Rising temperatures resulted in a 74.7% increase in electricity consumption by Sikkim, a small mountainous region in the northeast famous for its beautiful mountains.
Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, two other mountainous region full of tourists seeking traction on the plateau, have seen energy demand rise by more than a sixth due to high temperatures.
Other northern provinces such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, as well as Jharkhand in the east saw demand for electricity increase by more than 25%, data showed. Seven provinces including the southern state of Andhra Pradesh have been severely cut off from electricity for more than six years, according to data. Most of the provinces are the ones in the north that have been experiencing rising temperatures due to the heat.
India is likely to face further power cuts as coal prices, which were at a very low level before the summer of at least nine years, dropped by 13%, despite the Coal India state, accounting for 80% of India’s coal production. , increased productivity by more than 27%.
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