It has been a summer of broken heat records in the Maximum City. Surging heat has fueled demand for power in the city and state.
At 34-35°, when the metropolitan city is sweltering during the afternoon, it is using up 3300 Megawatt (Mw) of electricity to beat the heat. The consumption goes down during the evening and at night when the earth's surface begins to cool down.
As per the Maharashtra State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) data, since April 1, maximum consumption of energy is over 3200Mw, while late night it hovers at around 1900-2000Mw. This is namely because of the air conditioners which are kept on through the night.
In the island city, BEST Undertaking is inching towards breaching the maximum demand of 790-800 Mw. "We expect the figures to cross in the days to come. The demand for electricity will rise by at least 10-15 per cent," said a BEST official on condition of anonymity. The Undertaking supplies power to over 10 lakh consumers who reside in the south and central Mumbai — between Colaba to Sion/Mahim.
The suburbs too is seeing its fair share of a spike in consumption of electricity with an average of 2500Mw. Several multinational companies and offices dotting the western and eastern suburbs have contributed to the surge in electricity consumption during the day.
"Demand for power will rise in the coming days. Considering that there is acute water scarcity across the state, there was no curtailment in the production of electricity. Thus, the electric demand situation across the state is not that bad. Due to water scarcity, usage of pumps for agriculture use has dropped, thus decreasing the power consumption in the agricultural sector," said Ashok Pendse, power expert.
Currently, the state is consuming nearly 22400 Mw during the day which drops to 19500 Mw at night. The consumption is expected to cross 23000 Mw in the coming days. Until now there is no load shedding anywhere in Maharashtra.
Similarly, the demand for power had surpassed 23000 Mw last year.
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In the island city, BEST Undertaking is inching towards breaching the maximum demand of 790-800 Mw. "We expect the figures to cross in the days to come. The demand for electricity will rise by at least 10-15 per cent," said a BEST official on condition of anonymity. The Undertaking supplies power to over 10 lakh consumers who reside in the south and central Mumbai — between Colaba to Sion/Mahim.
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