India's February power usage surges 8% to 127.79 billion units

06 Mar 2024 CW Team

India's power consumption had increased by over 8 percent to 127.79 Billion Units (BU) in February compared to the previous year. The data revealed that in February 2023, power consumption had been 118.29 BU, exceeding the 108.03 BU recorded in the same month the previous year.

The month of February 2024 had 29 days due to it being a leap year, resulting in a slightly higher growth rate of power consumption for that month.

In February 2024, the peak power demand met, which represents the highest supply in a day, reached 222 GW. This was higher than the 209.76 GW recorded in February 2023 and the 193.58 GW recorded in February 2022.

Experts noted that both power consumption and demand showed improvement in February, attributing it to the low mercury levels, particularly in North India. The prolonged cold wave led to an increased use of heating equipment such as heaters, blowers, and geysers, resulting in a rise in both power demand and consumption.

The power ministry had initially estimated the country's electricity demand to reach 229 GW during the summer of the previous year. However, this projection was not met in April-July due to unseasonal rainfall. Peak supply reached a new high of 224.1 GW in June before decreasing to 209.03 GW in July. Peak demand reached 238.82 GW in August 2023, 243.27 GW in September, 222.16 GW in October, 204.77 GW in November, 213.79 GW in December 2023, and 222.73 GW in January 2024.

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