Chennai: This summer, Chennai consumed 25 per cent of the overall power demand in Tamil Nadu, marking about 5 per cent increase from the earlier seasons. Its per-day overall consumption touched a lion’s share of 3,700MW, say officials.
The maximum demand of 3,716MW was witnessed on May 4 and the maximum power consumption stood at 81.33 million units in Chennai alone, say Tangedco officials. Tangedco anticipates that Chennai’s demand will reach 4,000 MW in 2022.
The state-wide power consumption peaked at 17,563 MW units on April 29 around 2.30pm and about 388.078 MU (million units) were consumed on the day.
Narrating the pattern of consumption, they say the demand peaks around 2.30pm and between 9.30pm and 11.30pm. While officials owe it to the use of air-conditioners by domestic consumers, they anticipate that the consumption might go up further in the coming days and reach 3,800 MW, as scorching days continue even after agni nakshtaram period. Even as the workplaces shut at night hours, the domestic consumption kept the demand all-time high, said Tangedco officials. After 11.30pm, the demand subsides at 3,600MW.
According to Tangedco officials, Chennai’s power demand does not go below 3,100MW during summer, while the approximate power consumption during monsoon is around 2,500MW. However, in the last two years, the peak power demand did not cross 3,000MW even during summer as most workplaces were shut due to pandemic and it is cited as one of the reasons for little to no power cuts in the previous years.
Official say the unscheduled power cuts reported in the city and suburbs are caused by technical defects and are restored within 30 minutes, but they are misinterpreted as outages. “There are no unscheduled power cuts, as we get 3,000 MW from wind energy sources and another 2,500 MW is harnessed from solar power. There will not be major disturbance in solar power generation till August. Also, about 3,000 ring main units (RMU) have been installed for continuous power supply from alternative source in the core of the city and an additional 1,200 RMUs are being installed in peripheral areas of the city such as Avadi and Tambaram, which will further reduce the duration of the interruption in power supply,” added the official.
Source: PTI
