Mercury rise shoots up power demand

CHENNAI: With the maximum temperature increasing by two to three degrees Celsius across Tamil Nadu in the past few days, the State’s daily energy consumption has increased sharply to 392 million units on Thursday as against 346 MU on the same day last year.

According to the State Load Despatch Centre data (SLDC), the peak power demand on Thursday touched 17,643 MW against 16,292 MW on the same day last year.

Sources in Tangedco said the power demand has gone up due to a spike in temperature. “People have started using ACs a lot, pushing up power consumption,” an official said.

The official said the power demand is expected to increase further with the summer approaching. Despite several units of the central generating stations under outage, Tangedco has ensured uninterrupted supply. Two units of Vallur Thermal Power Station, supplying 712 MW, are expected to resume operation in mid-March while Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, shut for refuelling, will restart on April 12. NLC supplies only about 900 MW of its total 1800 MW capacity.

The State recorded an all-time peak demand of 19,387MW and energy consumption of 423.785 MU on April 20, 2023. The peak demand is expected to cross 20,000 MW mark this summer.

The Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai has warned that dry weather would prevail across the State with a maximum temperature of 2-3 degrees Celsius above normal.