Good news for economy, electricity demand creates new record
There is good news on the economy front. This morning the power demand crossed 185,820 MW, which is the highest ever. Till January 19 this year, the demand and supply of electricity has increased by 8% over the same period last year. This is a sign of the return of economic activity. Union Power Minister RK Singh himself gave this information via tweet.
He said that at 9.35 am this morning, the demand for electricity in the country crossed 185820 MW which is the highest demand till date. He said that till January 19, the demand and supply of electricity has increased by 8 percent compared to the same period last year. This is the highest growth rate ever. This is an indication that the economy is returning. He said that the increasing demand for electricity symbolizes the success of the Saubhagya scheme. Under this scheme, electricity has been provided to all the houses including the poor and the marginalized.
Increased demand after 6 months
It is noteworthy that after a gap of six months, electricity consumption increased by 4.4 percent in September and 11.6 percent in October. Electricity consumption grew by 3.7 percent to 97.43 billion units in November as compared to 93.94 billion units in the same month a year ago. Experts said consumption figures for the first fortnight of this month suggest that commercial and industrial demand is steadily improving following the ‘lockdown’ relaxation.
Power consumption increased by 4.8 percent to 50.36 billion units in the first fortnight of December. It explains continuity in economic activity. According to the data of the Ministry of Power, the power consumption during the period from 1 to 15 December last year was 48.04 billion units. In the year 2019, electricity consumption in the entire December month was 101.08 billion units.
Demand was affected by lockdown
The government had announced a ‘lockdown’ across the country from March 25 to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic. Due to economic activities affected in the country, electricity consumption started to decline from March. Due to the epidemic, power consumption was affected during March to August this year. On an annual basis, electricity consumption declined by 8.7 percent in March, 23.2 percent in April, 14.9 percent in May, 10.9 percent in June, 3.7 percent in July and 1.7 percent in August. According to the data, there was an increase of 11.73 percent in electricity consumption in October.
