As Delhi shivers on second consecutive ‘cold day’, power demand hits all-time high

With Friday’s maximum temperature only being a little above the 12.5 degrees recorded on Thursday, which was the season’s coldest day so far, Delhi’s power demand on Friday hit the highest-ever peak recorded in the winter months — 5,559 MW at around 11 am.

The peak power demand on Friday surpassed what was the previous record of 5,526 MW recorded on January 6 last year.

Data from the BSES shows that Delhi’s peak power demand in the winter has remained below 5,000 MW from the 2015-16 winter to the 2018-19 winter. This winter, the peak power demand is expected to hit 5,760 MW.

Delhi’s DISCOMS – BRPL and BYPL – met peak power demands of 2,379 MW and 1,136 MW respectively on Friday. Last winter, BRPL dealt with a peak demand of 2,338 MW, while BYPL handled a peak of 1,181 MW.

The minimum temperature early Friday was 9.4 degrees Celsius, three degrees above the normal. Parts of the city, like the weather station at Aya Nagar, recorded dense fog early on Friday, with visibility dropping to around 50m at the station.

Going by the IMD forecast, ‘cold day’ conditions are set to persist in Delhi on Saturday as well when the maximum temperature is expected to be around 15 degrees Celsius.

An IMD forecast issued on Friday said that ‘cold day’ to ‘severe cold day’ conditions are likely to continue over parts of Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Rajasthan over the next two days and decrease thereafter. Moderate to dense fog is on the forecast for Delhi for the weekend.

With a fresh western disturbance expected to affect northwest India from January 8 onwards, light rainfall is on the forecast for the national capital on January 9 and 10.