Country’s electricity use falls to lowest in five years due to lockdown

Chennai: India’s electricity use plummeted to levels last recorded in March 2015, government data showed on Saturday, due to a nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of the coronavirus.

India used 2.59 billion units of electricity on March 27 – the third day of the three-week national lockdown ordained by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That was lower by nearly a fourth compared with the average consumption during the first three weeks of March before the lockdown was enforced.

The energy hungry nation’s power consumption was lower on March 1, 2015 – when the country’s total electricity generation capacity was more than 25% lower than the current potential.