Why the demand for power is surging despite India’s growth slowdown

An almost 7 per cent growth in India’s electricity demand at a time when economic expansion has cooled to its weakest in six years may appear as a paradox at first glance. Clarity emerges with a closer look.

Power requirement growth in the nation’s most industrialized states decelerated in the April-July period, as demand from businesses cooled in line with the broader slowdown in Asia’s third-largest economy. The overall jump in demand, on the other hand, came mostly because of a rise in demand from states that happened to add a large number of households to the electricity network for the first time.

Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, the nation’s hubs for making automobiles and ancillaries, witnessed demand grow 2.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively — the slowest growth among large power consumers, data from the government’s Central Electricity Authority show.