Electricity demand peaks in UP as heat, humidity rise

Lucknow, July 25 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh clocked a peak electricity demand of 28,043 mw on Sunday/Monday night, which was the highest-ever in the state's history, said officials with the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL). Unrelenting heat and humidity pushed up the demand.

Unrelenting heat and humidity pushed up the demand.

Earlier, the highest power demand was recorded at 27,622 mw on July 22 and 27,611 mw in June.

Officials claimed that the power corporation was meeting the entire demand by providing electricity to consumers as per the schedule, but the ground reality was a bit different.

Complaints about undeclared load shedding, apart from power disruptions caused by failure of overloaded transformers continued to be reported from all over the state.

UPPCL chairman M. Devraj said, "Power demand has reached 28,043 mw for the first time in the state's history. We are ensuring a record supply of power to consumers as desired by the chief minister and the energy minister."

He said advance planning and management for procurement of power from various sources was coming handy in providing adequate electricity to consumers as per the roster.

"We are supplying power to villages for 18 hours on an average 21.30 hours to Nagar panchayats and tehsil headquarters, 20 hours to Bundelkhand and 24 hours to district and divisional headquarters and cities," he claimed.

Devraj said that instructions had been issued to all the field officials to take all possible steps to avoid power disruptions resulting from transformer failure. “We have told officials to keep trolley transformers in reserve to quickly replace damaged transformers and also necessarily take consumers’ phone calls,” he said.

The UPPCL chairman also appealed to consumers to make timely payment of their electricity bills to enable the corporation to serve them better.

UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman A.K. Verma said power demand would go up further in the state considering the fact that even the daytime load on Monday noon was over 25,000 mw.

"Months back, we had forecast that power demand in the state would cross 28,000 mw this year and even demanded the UPPCL and the UP Power Transmission Corporation Ltd to upgrade their networks accordingly. But they did not pay heed," he said.