While the usually rising power demand has fallen since August 2019, the decline has been sharper in the industrialised states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. This controverts the government’s attribution of the historic fall in electricity consumption in the country during recent months to ‘extended monsoon’ and the consequent “reduction in demand in agriculture sector and the reduction in cooling requirement in the domestic and commercial sectors”.
In the festive month of October, power consumption in the country dropped 12.5% on year; the fall was a steeper 18.8% in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat and an even more pronounced 21.2% in Maharashtra.
