Despite soaring mercury levels in Delhi, power demands declines: Data

Despite record day temperatures in Delhi, the power demand in the past few days has declined mainly due to holidays, discom officials said on Monday.

A tormenting heatwave swept through the city on Sunday with the mercury leaping to 49.2 degrees Celsius at Mungeshpur in northwest Delhi and 49.1 degrees Celsius at Najafgarh in the city's southwest.

However, the peak power demand reached 6,732 MW at 11.26 PM on Sunday, according to the realtime data of Delhi's State Load Dispatch Centre, the apex body to ensure integrated operation of the power system in the capital.

It slightly fell to 6,688 MW just past midnight -- on the intervening night between Sunday and Monday -- as per SLDC data.

Delhi witnessed its highest-ever peak power demand for May three days ago when it clocked 6,829 MW at 11.25 PM on May 13.

"The demand has remained sluggish due to the weekend and Buddh Purnima holiday. Normally, with day temperature rising, the peak demand too shoots up as cooling load increases," a discom official said.

With a partly cloudy sky in Delhi, the minimum temperature was recorded at 30.8 degrees Celsius, four degrees above normal for the season, on Monday.

The highest-ever peak demand of Delhi was 7,409 MW on July 2, 2019. With a harsher summer season this year, the discoms have expected the peak demand to breach the 8,000 MW and scale up to 8,200 MW in the coming days.