Amid the prevailing heat wave resulting in increased demand for power supply, the Ministry of Power has implemented a series of measures to meet the highest-ever peak demand of 250 GW during this ongoing summer season.

The ministry on Tuesday said that the Northern Region of India has been experiencing high demand conditions due to a prevailing heat wave since May 17. Despite these challenging conditions, the highest-ever peak demand of 89 GW in the Northern Region was successfully met.

This achievement was made possible by importing 25 to 30% of the region’s power requirement from neighboring regions. All utilities have been advised to maintain a high state of alert and minimize forced outages of equipment, it said.

According to the IMD forecast, heat wave conditions in North-West India are expected to abate from June 20.

The ministry highlighted that it has taken measures like Imported Coal Based (ICB) Plants Operation to continue the generation support during the high demand period.

Minimum planned maintenance of generating units has been scheduled during this period. Efforts are being made to minimize partial and forced outages to maximize the availability of generation capacity, the ministry said.

Additionally, plants under long-term outage have been sensitized to revive their units to ensure maximum power generation.

All generating companies (GENCOs) have been advised to keep their plants in healthy condition to ensure full capacity availability for optimal operation of various generation sources and adequate coal stocks are being maintained at coal-based thermal stations.

Further, the hydro stations have been advised to conserve water during solar hours and dispatch maximum generation during non-solar hours to ensure power adequacy at all times.

The ministry has directed the gas-based power plants to provide grid support. Additionally, around 860 MW of additional gas-based capacity (non-NTPC) has been tied up through competitive bidding specifically for this summer.

Furthermore, approximately 5000 MW of NTPC gas-based capacity has been instructed to be ready for immediate operation as per system requirements.

It further said that any un-requisitioned or surplus power available with generating stations is to be offered in the market as per provisions of the Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and Related Matters) Rules, 2022, and its amendments. This power can be utilized by any other buyer from the power market.

The ministry also encouraged the Inter-State Power Tying as it allowed states to tie up power with other states having surplus capacity via the PUShP portal.