In the first half of April, power consumption of India grew nearly by 45%. According to the Power Ministry data, in the first half of April, the power consumption in India grew nearly by 45% to 60.62 Billion Units (BU) over the corresponding period a year ago, showing vigorous recovery in industrial and commercial demand of electricity. Last year, the power consumption in the first half of the April (from April 1 to 15, 2020) was recorded at 41.91 Billion Units (BU). Whereas, the peak power demand met, which is the maximum supply in a day, during the first half of this month remained well above the highest record of 132.20 GW in the same period in April 2020. During the first half of this month, on April 8, 2021, peak power demand touched the maximum level of 182.55 GW, and recorded a growth of 38% over 132.20 GW recorded in the entire month of April last year. Power consumption in April last year had dropped from 110.11 Billion Units (BU) to 84.55 Billion Units (BU) in the same month in 2019. This happened primarily because of fewer economic activities subsequent to the imposition of lockdown by the government in the last week of March 2020 to control the spread of deadly COVID-19. Similarly, peak power demand met also dropped from 176.81 GW to 132.20 GW in April last year, thereby showing the impact of lockdown on economic activities. Experts are of the view that high growth in power consumption as well as demand in the first half this month is mainly on account of base effect. They said, “The power consumption remained low in April last year due to lockdown. Now, the high growth rate of power consumption clearly indicates healthy recovery in commercial and industrial demand.” They, however, warned that local lockdowns across the country to control the surge of COVID-19 positive cases may influence the commercial and industrial power consumption adversely in coming days. After a gap of six months, power consumption had recorded a 4.6% year-on-year growth in September and 11.6% in October. In November 2020, the power consumption growth decelerated to 3.12%, primarily because of the early onset of winters. In December, power consumption grew by 4.5% whereas it was 4.4% in January 2021. This year, in February, the power consumption was recorded higher at 104.11 Billion Units (BU) as compared to 103.81 Billion Units (BU) last year despite the fact that 2020 was a leap year. During the entire fiscal year of 2020-21, power consumption fell by 1% to 1,271.54 Billion Units (BU) from 1,284.44 Billion Units (BU) in 2019-20.
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