Peak power deficit in March more than halves in South

The peak power deficit in the southern states last month was 3.1% as compared to 6.3% in March last year

Delayed summer and unexpected rains brought the country's peak power deficit down to 3.2 per cent in March, according to official data. Peak power deficit in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Puducherry and Lakshadweep last month was 3.1 per cent as compared to 6.3 per cent in March last year.

Peak power deficit for the country as a whole, stood at 4.7 per cent in March 2014. This deficit was 5.5 per cent in March 2014.

North Indian states of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan recorded a shortage of 6.2 per cent last month. According to data by the Central Electricity Authority, the power requirement in March was 138,938 Mw of which the supply was 134,532 Mw leaving a shortfall of 4,406 Mw. As per a government official, the reason for improvement is unexpected rains and delay in arrival of summer. Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram saw a sharp rise in peak power deficit last month at 11.3 per cent.
 

This is an improvement from previous year's 7.7 per cent. The deficit in the Western region comprising Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa came down to one per cent from last year's 1.5 per cent in the same month. The peak power shortage in Eastern India (West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha etc) improved to 0.7 per cent last month as compared to 1.8 per cent in March 2014.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Power has set a target of generating close to 1,100 billion units of electricity during the current financial year. Power generation during 2014-15 was 1,048.403 billion units.