India’s energy supply deficit for the financial year (FY) 2020-21 stood at 0.4%, with the peak power deficit also narrowing down to 0.4% during the year, according to the data released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

In FY 2019-20, the country’s energy supply deficit stood at 0.5%, while the peak power deficit was 0.7%.

For the FY ending March 31, 2021, the total power supplied was 1.271 trillion units (TU), against the demand of 1.275 TU, a shortfall of 0.4%. For the fiscal year 2021, the country met the peak power demand of 190.19 GW with 189.39 GW, a deficit of 0.4%.

In March 2021, 120.64 MW of energy was supplied against the demand of 121.21 MW, a shortfall of 0.5%. The country met the peak power demand of 186.39 MW for the month with 185.89 MW.

The northeastern region, comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura, recorded the highest energy supply deficit for 2.5% for the FY 2020-21, and the peak power deficit stood at 5.7%.

The region was supplied 16.53 BU of energy against a demand of 16.96 BU between April 2020 and March 2021. In terms of peak power deficit, the region met 3.29 GW of peak demand with 3.1 GW of power.

The western region, which consists of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Daman & Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, completely met 387.98 BU of energy demand and 61.77 GW peak power demand during the period.

Similarly, the southern region, comprising Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep, also entirely met the energy demand of 326.84 BU and peak power demand of 58.39 GW.

In the northern region, which consists of Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, 392.32 BU of energy was supplied against its requirement of 396.15 BU, representing a deficit of 1%. In terms of peak power demand, the region met 68.29 GW of demand with 67,81 MW – a 0.7% deficit.

The eastern region, comprising Bihar, Damodar Valley Corporation, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, met the energy demand of 147.53 BU with 146.99 BU, a shortfall of 0.4%. The region fully met the peak power demand of 24.01 GW.

India’s power supply deficit had narrowed down to 0.3% between April and December 2020, while its peak power deficit had slipped to 0.6% during the period.

In December last year, the Cabinet committee on economic affairs had approved the revised cost estimate (RCE) for the North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project with an estimated cost of ₹67 billion (~$910 million). The RCE approval is a significant step towards the economic development of India’s northeastern region by strengthening the intrastate transmission and distribution systems.