Even amidst the raging Covid-19 second wave, electricity consumption has increased by 15 per cent in the first fortnight of May compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Andhra Pradesh’s electricity demand surged to 196 million units per day during this first fortnight, as against the last year’s 170 MU per day.
According to the state officials, the energy demand for this month is expected to be an average 190 MU per day. The lockdown and pandemic-induced disruptions had reduced the electricity demand in 2020. But the economy or the industries have not been much impacted by the second wave, leading to the surge.
The energy consumption in the first week of May was 1,399 million units, as against 1,139 MU in the first week of May last year, representing a 23 per cent increase. The national energy consumption peaked by 25 per cent during this same period. In what could be an indicator of economic revival, the discoms expect that the electricity demand would increase by 12 per cent even in June.
State energy secretary Srikant Naguapalli said that meeting the growing energy demand is not a constraint for the power utilities of Andhra Pradesh. “The state government is supporting the power sector in augmentation of generation capacities, transmission and distribution, renewable energy generation, and other advanced technologies. We have a robust power system in place in meeting the requirements of all categories of consumers,” said Srikant.
The energy secretary added that the energy consumption in the domestic sector in 2018-19 was 14,071 million units. “This had increased by 20 per cent in 2020-21 to 16,896 million units. The solar generation capacity was 3,800 MW in 2020-21, as against 3,029 MW in 2018-19,” said Srikant.
The secretary said that due to Covid-19, the revenues from industrial and commercial sector had severely affected in 2020. “In this crucial period, the state government has come to the rescue of the power utilities that incurred a loss of around Rs 4,300 crore in the form of subsidy to the tune of Rs 17,904 crore in 2019-20,” said Srikant.
