During the first quarter (Q1) of the financial year (FY) 2019-20, India’s power supply increased slightly with the power deficit declining to 0.4% from the 0.6% recorded during the Q1 of FY 2018-19, according to the data provided by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

During the period between April -June 2019, around 347,771 million units (MUs) of electricity were supplied against a demand of 346,208 MUs. This was a decrease of 1,563 MUs over the targeted energy requirement.

During the same period, against a peak demand of 183,673 MW of electricity, 182,533 MW was supplied. This was 1,140 MW fewer than the required supply to meet the peak demand, resulting in a peak power supply deficit of 0.6%.

According to the CEA report, power generation in India grew by 6.23% in Q1 of FY 2018-19. This can be attributed to an increase in the power generation from solar, wind, and hydropower. Mercom had previously reported that India produced approximately 39.2 BUs of solar power during FY 2018-19, an increase of nearly 52% compared to the preceding FY 2017-18.

Power generation in the northeastern region grew by 14.5%, in the western region by 8.74%, in the northern region by 8.22%, and in the eastern region by 4.13%. The southern region witnessed a negative growth of 0.7%, compared to Q1 of FY 2018-19. Meanwhile, the power imported from Bhutan has been increased by 9.83%.

During the first quarter of FY 2019-20, the northeastern region faced the highest power supply deficit of 5.4%, followed by the northern region at 1.1% and the eastern region at 0.2%. The southern and western regions recorded zero power supply deficit in the country.

In terms of peak power supply deficit, the northeastern region led with 2.1% followed by the northern region at 1.7%, and the southern region at 0.2%. The western and eastern region witnessed zero power deficit during the same period.

According to the Ministry of Power’s “Vision 2024” document, the power demand in India is expected to grow in the foreseeable future, and the supply will struggle to keep pace with it. Also, the construction of new thermal power plants will taper off with more projects being added from renewable energy sources, leading to temporal mismatches and may cause some reliability issues in the power system.