As mercury soars, Delhi's peak power demand touches all-time high

As Delhi reeled under sweltering heat, its peak power demand touched an all-time high of 7,016 MW today.

The Delhi power minister said necessary arrangements were in place to meet further increase in power demand.

Sultry conditions prevailed in the national capital today, with the maximum temperature settling at 39.1 degrees Celsius and humidity oscillating between 84 and 49 per cent.

The state load dispatch centre (SLDC) data showed the peak power demand reaching 7,016 MW at 3.26 pm today.

The previous highest was 6,998 MW, recorded yesterday.

A spokesman of power discom BSES said, today's peak power demand was more than 250 per cent of the peak power demand of 2,879 MW in 2002.

This is the 11th time this year that Delhi's peak power demand has surpassed last year's highest demand of 6,526 MW.

The peak power demand of Delhi is substantially more than that of several cities and states.

It is more than the power demands of Mumbai and Chennai put together and thrice that of Kolkata, said the spokesman.

The fact that the city's power demand is consistently touching new highs shows the robustness of the capital's distribution and transmission system, he said.