As monsoon plays truant, power demand shoots up in Haryana

With monsoon playing truant, the power demand in Haryana has shot up manifold.
In the wake of sudden shoot up in demand for power due to hot weather conditions prevailing in the State, the Haryana Power Distribution Corporations -- Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitan Nigam--supplied an all-time record 1901.04 lakh units (LU) of power in the State yesterday and the transmission and distribution system took highest peaking load of 8,612 megawatt (MW).
"These figures for the corresponding day of last year were 1,660.75 LU, with 7,755 MW peaking load on the system," the DHBVN said today in a statement.

It said that DHBVN has been recording increase in demand daily consecutively for last 10 days.
After its arrival on July 2 in Haryana and Punjab, the south-west monsoon has turned weak for the past 10 days.
The power consumption on July 9 in Haryana was 1,823 LU with 8,201 MW peaking load.

"On July 10 the consumption increased to 1,832.09 LU with 8,361 MW peaking load. The consumption further rose to 1,852.35 LU with 8,560 MW peaking load on July 11," it said.
Though the demand is higher than the projected 8,100-8,300 MW from June to September in Haryana, however, the Discoms have arranged up to 10,600 MW power through long term arrangements.

In neighbouring Punjab, the State government has already sought over Rs 2,300 crore as financial assistance from the Centre to deal with delayed monsoon and prolonged dry spell conditions.
With deficient rains and slow snow melting this year, the water level in Bhakra (1,613.77 feet) and Pong dams (1,314.06 feet) two days back was lower by 17.33 feet and 27.07 feet, respectively as against the level in corresponding period of last year.
In the absence of rains, the maximum temperatures in the two states and their common capital Chandigarh have been hovering close to the 40 degrees Celsius mark.