New Delhi: Out of a total requirement for 12,51,314 Million Units (MU) of electricity, 12,46,170 MU of electricity was supplied in the period between April 2021 and February 2022, leading to a gap of 0.4 percent between energy demand and supply, Minister for Power RK Singh told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. In a written response to a question in the House, Singh said that at present there is adequate availability of electricity in the country to meet the demand. "As on 28.02.2022, the installed generation capacity is around 395.6 GW which is sufficient to meet the demand of electricity in the country. The peak demand experienced during the current year was only 203 GW," said the minister.
"As per this, the energy not served during the current year is only of the order of 0.4 percent," he added.
According to the data shared by the minister in the House, electricity supply position was the worst in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh as 7.6 percent of demand was not met. Against a demand of 18,097 MU of electricity, J&K and Ladakh received 16,718 MU of electricity. Jharkhand stood next on the list with 4.4 percent of the electricity demand not getting met. Against a demand for 10,090 MU, 9,641 MU of electricity was supplied to Jharkhand.
Even though India is a power surplus nation, there is a gap between electricity demand and supply as power distribution companies (discoms) are saddled with huge outstanding dues to power generating companies. In states where dues are huge, power procurement by discoms is curtailed until they clear dues. This causes them to supply less power to consumers than what is required.
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