During the peak summer demand season of April and May, the average hours of power supplied to rural areas in the country stood at 21.48 hours a day with States such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh providing electricity to villages for more than 23 hours.
According to the data, which is part of a reply to a question by Power Minister RK Singh in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the power supplied to villages in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka has been well below the national average during the first two months of Q1 FY23.
Top performers
As per the average hours of power supplied during a day in rural feeders, Maharashtra topped the list with 23.93 hours followed by Gujarat (23.76 hours), West Bengal (23.38 hours), Andhra Pradesh (23.30 hours) and Madhya Pradesh (22.70 hours).
On the other hand, among the least performing were Haryana and Himachal Pradesh with power supply in villages for just 14.05 hours each followed by Karnataka (16.88 hours), Tripura (19.21 hours) and Bihar (20.77 hours).
On power supply disruption, Singh in his reply said “Interruptions in supply of electricity are generally on account of constraints of distribution network, or financial constraints with some distribution companies not having the resources to pay for power. Supply and distribution of electricity to all consumers is done by State power utilities.”
Centre has assisted States through various schemes including Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Integrated Power Distribution Scheme (IPDS) for uninterrupted power supply to all households, he added.
Ministry of Power has now launched the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) with the goal of achieving 24x7 power supply along with improving the financial viability of state-owned distribution companies, the Minister said.
Power supplied in FY22
Among the top performing states, Maharashtra provided power to its villages for 23.16 hours during FY22. Similarly, Gujarat provided electricity for 23.50 hours, West Bengal (23.38 hours), Andhra Pradesh (23.62 hours) and Madhya Pradesh (19.35 hours)
Among the least performing states, Haryana provided electricity in rural areas for 16.26 hours in FY22, . Himachal Pradesh for 13.26 hours, Karnataka (17.56 hours), Tripura (19.93 hours) and Bihar (20.39 hours).
Peak summer demand
April, May and June are peak months for power demand due to high summer temperatures. In FY23, the first quarter witnessed exponentially high summers with mercury hitting 48-49 degrees in many places across the country. India’s power consumption in Q1 FY23 broke all past records.
For perspective, the all-India power demand was up 18.6 per cent y-o-y during the quarter and the peak demand at 216 GW was 6.3 per cent higher on an annual basis. Daily peak power demand for Q1 FY23 averaged 196 GW (vs 187 GW in Q4 FY22), brokerage ICICI Securities said in a report.
On April 29, India’s peak power demand met during the day was recorded at 207 gigawatts (GW), which is higher by 13 per cent on an annual basis, and the energy met stood at 4578 million units (MU).
On a day-to-day basis, power demand is around 40,000-45,000 MW more than the same period last year. Energy consumption has also gone up from 3,500 MU on an average to 4,500 MU during the same period.