Power demand reaches to an all time high in this city

The increasing intense heat in the city has led to an all-time high power demand of 6044 MW. State Transmission Utility (STU), Delhi Transco Limited (DTL), said that due to extreme hot weather demand of power has gone unpredictably high in the city.

The demand has surpassed all the previous records and touched 6044 MW at 15:36 hours today which is the highest for this time of the season.  Prior to this the highest demand was recorded on 15th July 2014 as 5925 MW, said DTL. Experts said that demand is likely to increase in the days to come.

Besides, DTL pinpointed that, “Meeting this kind of load through DTL transmission network was a challenging task, especially when it is not getting its legitimate dues which have been duly approved by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) from Reliance owned DISCOMs i.e. BRPL & BYPL.  The outstanding dues as on date stands at over Rs.2000 crores.”

“Despite Supreme Court directing Reliance DISCOMs to clear their outstanding dues effective January 2014, these DISCOMs have preferred to ignore. The apex court in its latest order dated 12th May 2016 has directed these companies to pay 70% of the current dues till further orders.  The next date of hearing in the case will be in first week of July 2016,” DTL said in a statement.

Non receipt of payments has put constraints not only in future expansion plans of the company, but also affecting day to day maintenances, said an official. The official added, “It has been observed that these days maximum demand goes between 0200PM-0400PM and 1000PM-11.30PM.”

The STU has appealed to the public to use electricity judiciously and follow these simple measures to save electricity:

• Switch off the electrical equipment when not in use
• Shift some load to non-peak hours. There are a number of activities which are not time bound and can   be done when the demand of power is low. This will also help reduce the tariff
• Since humidity is not so high therefore coolers are also effective for cooling and consume less electricity
• Switch off your air conditioners when not in use. Besides, set the temperature between 25 and 27 degree.
• Use star rated electrical equipment which are energy efficient.