India's power demand falls over 25 pc to 125.81 GW on April 2

India's peak power demand slipped over 25 per cent to 125.81 GW on Thursday compared 168.32 GW on April 2 amid the lockdown to contain COVID-19 outbreak, showed power ministry data.

In actual terms, the demand fell around 43 GW on Thursday compared to the same day a year ago. However, the data showed that peak power demand met has stabilised around 120 GW after March 22.

The government has imposed 3-week lockdown to fight the pandemic from March 24.

The demand was down mainly due to lower requirements from industry and state power distribution companies (discoms) across the country due to the lockdown.

The peak power demand met is the actual highest energy supply during the day across the country.

According to the data, the peak demand met was 163.72 GW on March 20, which came down to 161.74 GW on March 21.

This dropped sharply to 135.20 GW on March 22 due a call for 'Janata Curfew' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The data also showed that the peak demand met improved slightly to 145.49 GW on March 23 but fell again to 135.93 GW on March 24 and subsequently to 127.96 GW on March 25.

The demand fell sharply to 120.31 GW on March 26 and to 115.23 GW on March 27, indicating continuous slump in demand.

However, there was little improvement on March 28 as the peak demand met rose slightly to 117.76 GW and to 120.18 GW the following day. The demand stood at 120.79GW on March 30; 123.08 GW on March 31; 123.30 GW on April 1 and 125.81 GW on April 2.

The peak power demand met was 168.7 GW in March and 176.81 GW in April last year.

India's peak power demand (met) was recorded at 170.17 GW on March 3, 2020. During the remaining ten days of the last month, the peak power demand was 145.49 GW on March 23.

The spot power price touched a three-year low of 60 paise per unit for supplies on last Wednesday (March 25) on the Indian Energy Exchange due to low demand. The average spot power price is hovering around Rs 2.50 per unit at electricity exchanges.