The Government of India has made arrangements for sufficient electricity .

The article we are looking at is on the power situation in the country which is predominantly centred around the ability to meet the power demand during the April, May and June, 2023. The Government of India has made arrangements for sufficient electricity keeping in view the long duration that this festive season extends.

In order to fulfill the inflated summer electricity demand government tries to take active steps which weaponized the Section 11 directions for the imported-coal-based power plants to the fullest. Also, thermal generation unit maintenance is postponed to the duration of monsoons, and partial and forced outages of thermals at generation point is made sure to be done onto minimum possible extent. The heat generating plants that are planned to be restarted under long extension of operations and cautionary advisories to generation companies are intended to deliver higher level of performance where full extent of existing capacity will be used to the fullest.

In addition to this, we have seen that appropriately optimizing the generation of hydro power along with the Energy exchange offerings by supplying any surplus generation capacity from the generating stations to meet the peak daily power demand of 224 GW in the month of April in the year 2024 which is the highest ever observed. In order to ensure the cover of 235 GW in May during the day and 23 GW – during the night and 240 GW in May – in June, while the electricity consumption is expected to increase, additional steps have been taken.

The list also includes the exercise of the clause of Section 11- that means 6 GW additional capacity in May and June for gas-based power plants. The optimization of hydro power production aggregates 4 GW of extra power in average, while the performance boost of thermal power plants maintenance and outage reduction add up to 5 GW for this coming summer. In addition, the estimated increase of about 10% in wind power capacity will also contribute to more improved generations during the peak demand months of May-June.

In light of the fact that these changes are just some of the measures to be implemented, combined with the anticipated above-normal monsoon as per the IMD forecast, it is estimated that there will be sufficient power for the month of May and June 2024, even during the day and night hours. This point-of-view is though of as an effective way to show the government’s robust mechanisms of guaranteeing power supply continuity during the hot summer times.