Power usage in the country grew nearly 47 per cent in the first week of April to 28.34 billion units (BU) over the consequent period a year ago, showing strong recovery in industrial and commercial demand of electricity, as per power ministry data.

Power consumption in the first week of April last year (from April 1 to 7, 2020) was recorded at 19.33 BU. On the contrary, the peak power demand met, which is the maximum supply in a day, in first week this month remained well above the highest record of 132.20 GW in the same period in April 2020.

For the duration of the first week this month, peak power demand touched the highest level of 181.05 GW on April 7, 2021, and recorded a growth of 27 per cent over 132.20 GW recorded in the entire month of April last year.

Power usage in April last year had fallen to 84.55 BU from 110.11 BU in same month in 2019. This happened mainly because of fewer economic activities following imposition of lockdown by the government in the last week of March 2020 to contain the spread of deadly COVID-19.

Likewise, peak power demand met also slumped to 132.20 GW in April last year from 176.81GW in the same month in 2019, showing the impact of lockdown on economic activities.

Experts are of the view that high growth in power consumption with its demand in first week of the month is mainly because of base erosion last year due to lockdown, but it clearly points out recovery in commercial and industrial demand.

However, they cautioned that local lockdowns to restrain the surge of COVID-19 positive cases may impact power consumption adversely with slump in commercial and industrial demand of electricity in coming days.

After a break of six months, power consumption had recorded a 4.6 per cent year-on-year growth in September and 11.6 per cent in October. In November 2020, the power consumption growth slowed to 3.12 per cent, mainly due to the early onset of winters. In December, power consumption grew by 4.5 per cent while it was 4.4 per cent in January 2021. 

Power consumption in February, 2021 recorded higher at 104.11 BU compared to 103.81 BU last year despite the fact that 2020 was a leap year. In March this year, the power consumption raised nearly 23 per cent to 121.51 BU compared to 98.95 BU in same month of 2020. Throughout the entire fiscal of 2020-21, power consumption dipped by one per cent to 1,271.54 BU from 1,284.44 BU in 2019-20.