Amid heatwave spell, India's peak power demand touches all-time high

Amid a severe heatwave spell across India, the peak power demand in the country touched an all-time high of 207,111 MW on Friday, informed the Ministry of Power.

"The maximum All India demand met touched 207111 MW at 14:50hrs today, an all-time high so far!," the ministry tweeted.

This comes amid the reports of the power crisis in many states across the country during the extreme heatwave.

The demand for power has risen in April due to heatwave and people in different parts of the country are facing power cuts. The problem has been accentuated by a steep rise in prices of imported coal due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and some power plants not operating to their full capacity.

Amid reports of a dip in coal stocks with thermal plants, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that the country's thermal plants hold about 22 million tonnes of coal which is enough for 10 days and replenishment will be done continuously.

Jharkhand, Haryana, Bihar, Punjab, and Maharashtra are among the states seeing power outages. Delhi has also written to the Centre over the possibility of power cuts to important establishments. The states and UTs are also taking steps to deal with the situation.

Meanwhile, Indian Railways has decided to cancel 657 train trips to speed up the movement of coal rakes to power plants.

As many as 509 mail/express train trips/services and 148 MEMU train services have been cancelled.