Electricity demand hits record as heat boosts cooling device usage
India’s electricity demand shot to an all-time high this week as a blazing summer forced citizens to crank up their air conditioning and other cooling devices.
Peak demand surged to 216.1 gigawatts on Tuesday, breaching a previous record of 215.9 gigawatts reached a year earlier, said S.R. Narasimhan, chairman of Grid Controller of India Ltd.
Rising electricity demand in the world’s most-populous nation due to a hotter-than-usual summer could potentially strain the country’s transmission network. It would also put pressure on the authorities to avoid blackouts at a time when some states are gearing up for elections.
