Delhi Power Minister Holds Review Meet As Peak Power Demand Rises

Delhi Power Minister Ashish Sood held a crucial review meeting with the three power companies over rising power demand as mercury touched 43.9 degree Celsius today.

As per State Load Despatch Center (SLDC), Delhi's peak power demand today clocked 8423 MW at 3:06 pm, which is the highest ever load in the city till June 12.

Following the meeting, Power Minister stated that all power companies in Delhi have been directed to further strengthen their infrastructure to address the growing electricity load. 

Considering the weather forecasts of similar condition in the coming days, the power companies must remain fully prepared, said the Minister. 

The Minister has also instructed the companies that in case of power outages due to natural calamities like strong winds, heavy rainfall, falling trees, or other unforeseen causes, the response time for restoration must be minimised to ensure uninterrupted and seamless power supply to consumers.

He reiterated that the government is working seriously in this direction and any negligence will not be tolerated.

Mr Sood has also directed power companies to replace old power grids in their respective areas, lay new cables, and adopt new technologies for power generation and distribution. 

The Minister underlined the need to set up systems that can instantly detect faults and enable prompt resolution by response teams. In addition, he asked power companies to conduct data analysis for better efficiency.

During the meeting, Mr Sood also urged power companies to accelerate efforts in the solar energy sector. He noted that, given Delhi's rising power demand, it is important to adopt solar energy. He asked power companies and the Power Department to actively encourage every electricity consumer in Delhi to install solar panels. 

He also stressed the need to make serious efforts to supply electricity 
through solar panels in areas where conventional electricity meters cannot be installed.

Furthermore, the Minister instructed the companies to replicate the battery bank model implemented in Kilokri in other regions as well, to enhance power storage and backup capabilities.

Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL) successfully met peak power demand of *2407 MW* till date today-without any outages or network constraints. 

The company has made comprehensive arrangements for the summer by strengthening its power infrastructure and undertaking preventive as well as condition-based maintenance of all critical electrical installations. 

Additional field staff have been deployed at key locations, and the call centre team is on alert to ensure swift responses through seamless coordination with on-ground teams.

"To meet today's power challenges and to get a grip on so many varied and dynamic variables, BSES uses a mix of advanced statistical forecasting models, combined with state-of-the-art weather forecasting solutions, including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and rich domain expertise provided by IMD-POSCO. These analytics help us build models, which lead to high accuracy planning and huge saving of man-hours," said the BSES.