Tamil Nadu’s peak power demand was 18,007 MW in August 2023, up by about 9.72% from 16,411 MW in August 2022, according to data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
Tamil Nadu has the highest energy consumption among the southern States. It saw an all-time high peak demand of 19,387 MW on April 20. On the same day, an all-time high daily consumption of 423.785 million units was recorded.
Meanwhile, the Southern Regional Load Despatch Centre (SRLDC) has flagged the issue of over-drawl of power from the grid by the southern States in August 2023. The peak demand met in August 2023 is 63.84 GW as against 51.68 GW in August 2022, it said, adding that the grid demand was higher in the southern region, consistently crossing 60 GW since the second week of August 2023.
The rise in demand has been attributed to dry weather and poor rainfall, the SRLDC added.
Resource adequacy challenges were observed on several days in August, where sustained over-drawl from the grid by a few southern States was observed during non-solar hours, it noted.
As per the data shared by the SRLDC, Tamil Nadu had seen a total over-drawl of 9,885 MW in August 2023.
Despite the alert/emergency messages issued by the SRLDC Control room, consistent over-drawl was observed. Such a huge quantum of over-drawl is a threat to grid security, the SRLDC said.
It further said that one of the reasons for resource constraint was partial generation by the State generators, the Central generating stations and the regional generators.
Partial generation
The SRLDC noted that the demand in the southern region was expected to be higher till the first week of October and called for an action plan to address the issue of partial generation. It also sought a discussion on issues in the upcoming meeting of the Southern Regional Power Committee.
