Chennai: The extended summer-like weather prevailing across Tamil Nadu with very little rain despite the onset of southwest monsoon in the first week of June is driving up the power consumption to the peak-summer levels in the State.The peak power demand on Friday scaled to 20,976 megawatts (MW), while the overall electricity consumption was 456.28 million units (Mu). It maybe noted that the all-time high peak in the power demand of 21,307 MW was recorded on April 29 this year in the peak of summer, while the maximum per-day consumption of 471.45 Mu. The Friday’s power demand was just 400MW short of the all-time high peak demand, while the consumption difference too was just 15 Mu. Dry weather prevailed in most of the State on Friday with above normal temperature in many districts. Madurai topped the list with 39°C , followed by Tiruttani. Chennai too recorded above the normal temperature at 38°C.In the previous week, the peak demand hovered around 19,500 MW, but the average peak demand this week was around 20,400 MW, said TNPDCL officials. In comparison, the peak power demand was around 18,000 MW in June last year and another 1,000 MW less in 2024 during the same week.“Usually, Chennai will record maximum demand and consumption during June, while the rest of the State will require less power due to rains, but overall demand has been high this year. Chennai’s peak power demand has been around 4,800 MW,” said an official.However, TNPDCL said they did not face issues in meeting the power demand as the peak demand happens in the afternoon, when solar power is available, while wind power generation too has picked up in the last few days. On Friday, solar power generation peaked at 7,526 MW while generating 56 million units, while 91.2 million units of power from windmills were absorbed into the grid.TNPDCL chairman and managing director J Radhakrishnan said that there has been no issues on sourcing power supply as the discom had signed sufficient long and medium term power purchases.
