India’s unrelenting heat pushes April power demand to record high, crisis risk
- Hottest pre-summer in decades prompts surge in the use of air conditioning, triggering the worst power crisis in years
- More than a billion people are at risk from the heat, scientists have warned, linking the early onset of an intense summer to climate change.
India’s electricity demand touched a record high in April as its northern states reeled under the hottest pre-summer months in decades, with a surge in the use of air conditioning triggering the worst power crisis in more than six years.
Power demand grew 13.2 per cent to 135.4 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), as the electricity requirement in the north grew between 16 per cent and 75 per cent, government data showed.
Electricity use is expected to grow as India’s weather office has forecast above normal maximum temperatures over most parts of the west central, northwest, north and northeast.
India and neighbouring Pakistan have been suffering from extreme heat this year and more than a billion people are at risk from the heat, scientists have warned, linking the early onset of an intense summer to climate change.
The unprecedented electricity use resulted in widespread power cuts in April, as utilities scrambled to manage demand as coal supplies dwindled. Power supply fell short of demand by 2.41 billion units, or 1.8 per cent, the worst since October 2015.
Demand for power in Delhi rose 42 per cent in April, with northern states such as Punjab and Rajasthan seeing electricity demand grow 36 per cent and 28 per cent respectively, government data showed.
Soaring temperatures lead to a 74.7 per cent rise in electricity use by Sikkim, a small hilly state in the northeast famous for its scenic mountains.