India’s peak power demand hits record high of 256GW amid soaring temperatures

INDIA'S peak power demand surged to an all-time high of 256GW on Saturday as intense heatwaves across the northwest and central regions drove up the use of cooling appliances, pushing electricity consumption to record levels.

On Friday, the peak demand had risen to 252GW, surpassing the previous high of 251GW logged in May 2024, according to data from the Grid Controller of India Ltd, the national grid operator. The fresh high of 256.11GW was hit at 3.38 pm on Saturday.

The peak demand levels reached so far are unusually high for the period. Such high electricity demand is typically seen during May-June. This year, the early onset of summer has led to a sudden jump in demand.

Mint earlier reported that India’s early and intense summer is already pushing electricity demand towards the highest levels seen during peak summer last year, challenging the country’s power system for the weeks ahead.

The peak demand hit so far is way higher than Grid India’s projection for the week ending 26 April. As per Grid India’s weekly forecast, the peak for the 20–26 April period was 239.5GW.

Demand is likely to remain elevated, as heatwaves are expected to continue in the north and north-western regions going ahead. The maximum temperatures on Saturday were in the range of 40–45 degrees Celsius over most parts of the country. The highest maximum temperature of 47.4 degrees Celsius was reported at Banda, Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday.

Alok Kumar, director general of the All India Discoms Association, said power distribution companies (discoms) need to prepare for rising demand by maintaining adequate reserves, backup systems and transmission infrastructure to enable electricity procurement from other states if required.

“The country-level peak is a phenomenon which will occur only for a few days in a year. It will not occur simultaneously in all discoms. However, the discoms need to ensure that their networks have sufficient slack to meet the demand. There should be adequate transmission capacity through GNA so that they can import from other states if needed. Also, there should be adequate reserves and discoms should be have their resource adequacy plans in place,” said Kumar, also a former Union power secretary.

General Network Access (GNA) in the power sector is a regulatory mechanism enabling power generators and distributors to access the national transmission grid without a specific, point-to-point contract.

India’s power consumption growth is historically tied to the weather, with summer heatwaves being the biggest driver. According to India’s apex power sector planning body, the Central Electricity Authority, the peak demand in FY27 may reach a record level of 271GW.

“The demand currently is largely backed by cooling demand. The temperatures are about 2–2.5 degree higher than the same period last year. Currently, coal, solar and hydro are helping meet the demand,” said Alekhya Datta, director, electricity and renewables division, The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri). However, the fact that most of the gas-based capacity is not operational may lead to more load on coal-based capacity in the non-solar hours, unless flexibility in hydropower is planned and BESS projects fast-tracked, he added.

About 8GW of gas-based power capacity is sitting idle due to war-driven supply shortages in West Asia, according to the power ministry.

The India Meteorological Department ’s (IMD) latest forecast shows that heatwave conditions are likely to persist over isolated to scattered pockets of north-west and central India during next three days days and abate thereafter.

The IMD on Sunday said that heatwave conditions are also very likely in some pockets across Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Bihar and Gujarat on 26–27 April. Similar conditions are expected over east Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh during 26–28 April. Warm night conditions are also expected in isolated pockets of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, West Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh during 26–29 April.

Further, apart from cooling demand, the power ministry expects the shift of several cooking gas users to electric cookstoves to add up to 27GW to electricity demand this year.

On 10 April, Krushna Chandra Panigrahy, director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), told reporters that the shift toward induction cooking has already begun and will create “an additional layer of demand” during morning and evening peak hours.

While usage patterns vary across India due to differing “climate zones, socio-economic conditions, and cooking habits,” the impact will be most visible at the distribution level. Panigrahy estimated that, depending on how widely the technology is embraced, the “additional demand would be in the range of 13–27GW in low and high induction cooking adoption.” He added that BEE and the power ministry were studying the demand scenario and working proactively to meet it.

Further, in order to ensure an uninterrupted power supply, about 10GW capacity of thermal power plants have deferred their maintenance programmes this summer, Piyush Singh, additional secretary at the Ministry of Power, told reporters on 10 April.

The ministry also plans to accelerate the addition of power generation capacity and commission a total of 22GW capacity, including thermal, solar, hydro, battery storage and pump storage. India currently has an installed capacity of more than 531GW, reflecting a diversified portfolio, with significant contributions from coal, solar and hydro sources. Non-fossil sources account for more than 50% of India’s installed electricity capacity.