This is an archive article published on April 28, 2025

Peak power demand in Delhi surges to 6,000 MW, highest in April since 2022

In 2023 and 2024, Delhi’s power demand had not touched the 6,000-MW mark in April. In 2023, it had peaked at 5,422 MW, and in 2024, it had peaked at 5,447 MW, as per discom officials.

The city's peak power demand had crossed 8,000 MW for the first time last year (Reuters File)

3 min readNew DelhiApr 29, 2025 03:47 AM IST First published on: Apr 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM IST

Days after recording the highest day temperature in April in three years, Delhi saw the peak power demand surge to 6,015 MW at 3:30 pm on Monday, the highest in April since 2022, according to the data from the State Load Despatch Center (SLDC). The sharp rise in demand has prompted discoms to swing into action.

In 2023 and 2024, Delhi’s power demand had not touched the 6,000-MW mark in April. In 2023, it had peaked at 5,422 MW, and in 2024, it had peaked at 5,447 MW, as per discom officials.

On Saturday, the city registered a new record with the maximum temperature rising to 42.1 degrees Celsius, the highest day temperature in April in three years. It was in 2022 that April saw the highest maximum temperature at 43.5 degrees Celsius. On Sunday, Delhi’s peak power demand stood at 5,710 MW, marking a sharp jump of over 300 MW in just 24 hours.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the number of heatwave days between April and June this year is likely to be higher than usual. A yellow alert had already been sounded earlier this month.

After clocking a peak power demand of 8,656 MW in 2024, projections now suggest that the summer this year could see peak demand cross the 9,000-MW mark for the first time.

In anticipation of a grueling summer ahead, the discoms are preparing to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply.

“BSES discoms are geared up to ensure reliable power supply to meet the power demand of more than 50 lakh consumers and 2 crore residents in South, West, East, and Central Delhi….BSES has made power banking arrangements with many states, from where the discoms will get up to 500 MW of power during the summer months,” a discom official said.

Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), and the deployment of cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to forecast demand with greater accuracy are among the steps taken by discoms to tackle the surge in demand.

Additionally, 2,100 MW of green power is expected to play a key role in meeting the Capital’s surging electricity needs.

Efforts are also being made to stabilise the power infrastructure across the Capital. On Monday, BRPL successfully met a peak power demand of 2,590 MW in South and West Delhi, while BYPL handled 1,290 MW in East and Central Delhi. BRPL’s area, which saw a peak demand of 3809 MW in the summer of 2024 and is expected to touch around 4050 MW this year. BYPL’s area is also expected to see a slight rise from 1,882 MW last year to approximately 1,900 MW this summer.

“BSES has also done extensive predictive checks to identify hotspots or to pre-determine potential faults and to take remedial measures…An online load monitoring system is also in place for tracking the power transformers and 11kV feeder load, especially during the summer,” an official underlined.